Cleveland Clinic Performs First Robotic Kidney Transplant

Image: Cleveland Clinic

Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic, long known for pioneering surgical innovations, announced this week that they have performed the first robotic single-port kidney transplant.

The technique used during the surgery used only one small abdominal incision, which allowed for both surgical instrument access and efficient placement of the donor kidney.  This innovation represents another milestone in the all-important domain of minimally invasive surgery.

The implication for kidney transplantation is not only the clinical value of a single and smaller incision, but less post-operative pain and expanding the number of access options for obese or anatomically varied patients.

The surgical team included Jihad Kaouk, MD, director of the Center for Robotic and Image Guided Surgery; Alvin Wee, MD, surgical director of Renal Transplantation, Mohamed Eltemamy, MD, David Goldfarb, MD and Eric Miller, MD. According to the Cleveland Clinic, this group “combined their collective expertise in minimally invasive, robotic and kidney transplant surgery to accomplish this first successful operation”.

A short animation clip of the surgical technique is here on the Cleveland Clinic youtube channel.