Are we ready for day-case partial nephrectomy?

Area of Science:

• Urology
• Surgical Oncology
• Minimally Invasive Surgery

Background:

• Fast-track and day-case surgeries are increasingly important due to reduced morbidity from minimally invasive techniques.
• Ambulatory radical nephrectomy has been reported, but robotic partial nephrectomy (PN) with same-day discharge is novel.
• Previous studies showed safety and feasibility of robotic PN with discharge on postoperative day 1.

Discussion:

• This study reports the initial experience with robot-assisted PN discharged on postoperative day zero.
• Discusses essential criteria for selecting appropriate patients for outpatient PN.
• Highlights the need to identify baseline patient factors and prevent postoperative events for successful same-day discharge.

Key Insights:

• Robot-assisted partial nephrectomy is feasible for same-day discharge.
• Careful patient selection based on baseline factors and potential postoperative events is mandatory.
• Outpatient PN requires recognition and prevention of specific patient and event factors.

Outlook:

• Further assessment of safety, patient satisfaction, cost-efficiency, and reproducibility is needed.
• Day-case PN has the potential to become a standard of care with proper implementation.
• Optimizing patient selection criteria will be key to promoting day-case PN widely.