Robot-assisted kidney transplantation: Is it getting ready for prime time?

Table 1 Overview of the main steps for development and implementation of robot-assisted kidney transplantation programs worldwide

Ref.	Topic
Hoznek et al[14], 2002	First procedure performed through da Vinci robot (Intuitive Surgical, Inc., Mountain View, California) to complete vascular dissection and anastomosis as well as ureterovesical anastomosis
Rosales et al[6], 2010	First laparoscopic transplantation of a kidney from a living, related donor, performed April 16, 2009
Boggi et al[13], 2011	First European robotic kidney transplantation
Giulianotti et al[15], 2010	First robotic kidney transplant in a morbidly obese patient
Menon et al[9], 2014	First standardization of RAKT according to IDEAL principals. Phase 0 (simulation) studies included the establishment of techniques for pelvic cooling, graft placement in a robotic prostatectomy model, and simulation of the robotic kidney transplantation procedure in a cadaveric model. Phase 1 (innovation) studies began in January 2013 and involved treatment of a highly selective small group of patients (n = 7), using the principles utilized in the phase 0 studies, at a tertiary referral center
Menon et al[10], 2014	Prospective study of 50 consecutive patients who underwent live-donor RAKT at Medanta Hospital following a 3-yr planning/simulation phase at the Vattikuti Urology Institute according to IDEAL principals
Sood et al[11], 2014	Monitoring patient safety during the learning phase of RAKT and determine when it could be considered learned using the techniques of statistical process control
Breda et al[12], 2018	First multicenter prospective observational study performed by the ERUS RAKT working group
Vignolini et al[5], 2019	Report of the development of the first RAKT program from deceased donors
Territo et al[29], 2018	Update of the multicenter prospective observational study performed by the ERUS RAKT working group
Campi et al[26], 2019	Report of a monocentric RAKT experience with extraperitonelization of the graft according to the Vattikuti-Medanta technique, allowing a safe access for diagnostic and therapeutic percutaneous procedures during the postoperative period
Gallioli et al[19], 2020	Analyse of the learning curve for RAKT. At least 35 cases are needed to achieve reproducibility in terms of timing, complications, and functional results
Vignolini et al[25], 2019	First preliminary experience with 6 patients operated from January 2017 to April 2018 using indocyanine green fluorescence videography to assess graft and ureteral reperfusion
Musquera et al[17], 2021	The results of the RAKT experience performed in 10 European centers by members of the ERUS-RAKT group

ERUS: European Robotic Urology Section; IDEAL: Idea, Development, Exploration, Assessment, Long-term; RAKT: Robot-assisted kidney transplantation.