Long-term outcomes of minimally invasive surgeries in partial nephrectomy. Robot or laparoscopy?

To compare long-term oncological and renal functional outcomes of laparoscopic and robotic partial nephrectomy for small renal masses.

A total of 103 patients who underwent laparoscopic (n = 31) and robotic (n = 72) partial nephrectomy between April 2015 and November 2018 were included in the study. Perioperative parameters, long-term oncological and functional outcomes were compared between the laparoscopic and robotic groups.

No significant differences were found in terms of age, tumour size, RENAL and PADUA scores, pre-operative estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and presence of chronic hypertension and diabetes (P = .479, P = .199, P = .120 and P = .073, P = .561, and P = .082 and P = .518, respectively). Only estimated blood loss was significantly higher in the laparoscopic group in operative parameters (158.23 ± 72.24 mL vs. 121.11 ± 72.17 mL; P = .019), but transfusion rates were similar between the groups (P = .33). In the laparoscopic group, two patients (6.5%) required conversion to open, while no conversion was needed in the robotic group (P = .89). There were no differences in terms of positive surgical margin and complication rates (P = .636 and P = .829, respectively). No significant differences were observed in eGFR changes and post-operative new-onset chronic kidney disease at 1 year after the surgery (P = .768, P = .614, respectively). The overall mean follow-up period was 36.07 ± 13.56 months (P = .007). During the follow-up period, no cancer-related death observed in both group and non-cancer-specific survival was 93.5% and 94.4% in laparoscopic and robotic groups, respectively (P = .859).

In this study, perioperative and long-term oncological and functional outcomes seems to be comparable between laparoscopic and robotic partial nephrectomies.