Robotic Donor Nephrectomy: A Practical Guide

Kidney transplantation from a living donor provides the best chance for successful renal replacement therapy. However patient's safety remains of paramount importance and complications are unacceptable. Laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (LDN) has been proven to have a lower surgical mortality and morbidity as well as a lower blood loss, a shorter hospital stay, and a better cosmetic result compared to the open procedure. This has resulted in LDN being considered the standard in many centers. Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Donor (RALD) nephrectomy is a new trend developed in the last decade. Robotic assistance is increasingly popular worldwide, because it offers optimal operative conditions to the urological surgeon and a shorter learning curve than the standard laparoscopy.