Robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery to remove a patient’s entire kidney requires slightly longer operating times and results in increased costs compared with the use of traditional laparoscopic surgery, according to a large, multiyear analysis conducted by researchers.
However, the two approaches have comparable patient outcomes and lengths of hospital stay, the study showed.
Laparoscopic surgery is a minimally invasive procedure in which surgical operations are done through small incisions. The removal of the entire kidney is called a radical nephrectomy.
“Although the laparoscopic procedure has been standard of care for a radical nephrectomy for many years, we saw an increase in the use of robotic-assisted approaches, and by 2015 these had surpassed the number of conventional laparoscopic procedures,”.
