V7-14: OPTIMIZING PORT PLACEMENT AND DOCKING FOR ROBOTIC KIDNEY SURGERY

Video

Introductions and Objectives
Robotic assisted renal surgery continues to gain popularity worldwide. Familiarity with conventional laparoscopic renal surgery does lend itself to similar techniques used with the robotic platform. The robotic platform allows the surgeon increased visualization, enhanced exposure, and advanced dexterity. Herein this report we establish reproducible port placement and robot docking techniques for robotic renal surgery by demonstrating transperitoneal partial nephrectomies and retroperitoneal nephrectomies.

Methods
Transperitoneal and retroperitoneal partial nephrectomy cases are presented to demonstrate our technique for optimizing robotic renal surgery. Photographs, schematics and intraoperative videos of both exterior robotic arms and surgical maneuvers are used to describe our systematic approach.

Results
Since 2010 over 800 robotic renal surgeries have been performed at our institution using our techniques. Our robot docking and port positioning has allowed us to successfully use the robotic platform to its fullest potential with no exterior robotic arm clashing as well as surgical precision.

Conclusions
Optimizing the robotic platform for renal surgery can be challenging. Our detailed descriptions of our techniques allow for consistent and reliable results while performing transperitoneal and retroperitoneal renal surgery.

Funding: none