Intra-corporeal robotic renal auto-transplantation

Renal auto-transplantation (RATx) is a suitable option for managing patients with long upper ureteric or pan-ureteric strictures. The current gold standard approach to RATx is a laparoscopic nephrectomy followed by open auto-transplantation. The advent of robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery has allowed us to apply minimally-invasive techniques to ever-more complex surgical procedures. We present the case of a 38-year-old patient referred to our institution for management of a failed laparoscopic pyeloplasty resulting in a long upper ureteric stricture with complete ureteric obstruction. After complete evaluation, RATx was determined as a suitable management option. Completely intracorporeal right RATx was performed robotically with intraperitoneal cold perfusion. Total operative time was 6.5 hours, with total ischemia time of only 79 minutes (4 minutes warm ischemia, 48 minutes cold ischemia, 27 minutes re-warming time), comparable to the gold standard approach for RATx. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of a completely intracorporeal robotic RATx in Canada.