Robotic Surgery

The da Vinci Robot

Can any surgeon perform robotic nephron-sparing surgery?

The da Vinci surgical robot is a powerful tool for surgeons already experienced in minimally invasive nephron-sparing surgery, to reduce bleeding and warm ischaemia times. However, surgeons who have never been trained on the da Vinci® robot, will invariably require a learning curve to familiarize themselves with the manoeuvres achieved with the robotic instruments. Given the time-sensitive nature of nephron-sparing surgery and risk of irreversible kidney damage caused by prolonged warm ischaemia clamp times, it would be better for such surgeons to familiarize themselves first with technically easier surgeries such as robotic prostatectomy for prostate cancer, or robotic pyeloplasty for kidney pelvic-ureteric junction obstruction (PUJO), before attempting robotic NSS.