Functional and oncological outcomes of open, laparoscopic and robot‐assisted partial nephrectomy: a multicentre comparative matched‐pair analyses with a median of 5 years’ follow‐up

Objectives To compare outcomes at a 5‐year median follow‐up among different partial nephrectomy (PN) approaches: robot‐assisted (RAPN), laparoscopic (LPN) and open partial nephrectomy (OPN). Patients and Methods We retrospectively analysed 1 308 patients who underwent PN (RAPN, n = 380; LPN, n = 206; OPN, n = 722) between 2006 and 2012 at one of four academic centres. We performed 1:1:1 propensity‐score‐matching adjustment based on confounding variables among groups, and 366 patients (122 in each group) were included in the final analysis. Survival rates were analysed using the Kaplan–Meier method. Results The median follow‐up periods were 60, 59.8 and 64.1 months for RAPN, LPN and OPN, respectively. In the matched groups, RAPN resulted in significantly lower mean estimated blood loss compared with LPN (P = 0.025) and OPN (P = 0.040), while LPN was associated with a longer mean operating time compared with RAPN (P = 0.001) and OPN (P = 0.001). The hospital stay was shorter in the RAPN group (P = 0.008). Regarding the oncological outcomes, there were no significant differences among the three groups in local recurrence rate (P = 0.882), distant metastasis rate (P = 0.816) or deaths from cancer (P = 0.779). At latest follow‐up, the incidence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) upstaging was significantly lower in RAPN compared with LPN (20.55% vs 32%; P = 0.035) and OPN (20.5% vs 33.6%; P = 0.038). The 5‐year CKD free‐survival rate was significantly higher (78.4%) in the RAPN group compared with 58.8% and 65.8% in the LPN and OPN groups, respectively (log‐rank P = 0.031). Conclusions In the present study, RAPN, LPN and OPN had similar local recurrence, distant metastasis and cancer‐related death rates at a 5‐year median follow‐up. In terms of functional outcomes, RAPN was associated with a lower incidence of CKD upstaging compared with OPN and LPN.