Laparoscopic en bloc kidney transplantation

First Robotic-Assisted Dual Kidney Transplant: Surgical Technique and Report of a Case With 24-month Follow-up

Background

Open surgery is the gold standard procedure for kidney transplantation. There is a strong rationale for using minimally invasive surgery in patients with end-stage renal disease. A robotic-assisted dual kidney transplant was performed for the first time at our institution.

Methods

In August 2013, a 63-year-old man with end-stage renal disease and diabetes mellitus under pharmacological control received both kidneys from a 70-year-old marginal donor. Pretransplant donor biopsy demonstrated a bilateral Karpinski score greater than 5. The organs did not exhibit malformations and each had an artery and a vein. The procedure was carried out by a 7-port intraperitoneal approach using the da Vinci surgical system. The procedure was identical for the 2 kidneys except that mobilization of the sigmoid colon was required to introduce the left graft. The renal vessels were anastomosed to the left external iliac vessels. The novel aspect of the technique was the introduction of both grafts through a single, 7-cm upper midline incision.

Results

Total operative time was 400 minutes and blood loss was 120 mL. Both grafts immediately began functioning. There were no intraoperative or postoperative complications. The patient was discharged on the seventh postoperative day with normal renal function. At 24 months, he is well and does not require hemodialysis.

Conclusions

Minimally invasive robotic-assisted technology is a promising technique that provides exceptional patient outcomes by reducing operative morbidity, immobilization, and time to recovery, while affording better esthetic results. Selected patients with multiple comorbidities benefit most. Grafts from marginal donors are an extremely valuable resource.

Laparoscopic Transplantation Following Transvaginal Insertion of the Kidney: Description of Technique and Outcome

Laparoscopic kidney transplantation (LKT) is well accepted modality of treatment for ESRD patients at our center. Usually, the kidney is inserted through small Pfannenstiel incision. With the permission of the Internal Review Board, we carried out LKT in eight female recipients following insertion of the kidney through the vagina. The kidney was procured by the retroperitoneoscopic approach. Antibiotic prophylaxis was given. All cases were carried out successfully with immediate graft function and 100% graft and patient survival at 1 year of follow-up. Estimated glomerular filtration rate at 1 month and 1 year was similar to eight randomly selected female recipients who underwent open kidney transplantation (OKT). No analgesia was required in seven out of eight patients after the 3rd postoperative day. In summary, vaginal insertion of kidney and LKT is safe and feasible in a selected group of patients. It is associated with better analgesia and has similar allograft function as compare to OKT.