A state-of-the-art pediatric urology: robot-assisted surgery

Abstract

Recently, robot-assisted surgery has gained popularity in urological field and especially, robot-assisted radical prostatectomy for localized prostate cancer and robot-assisted partial nephrectomy for small kidney cancer has been established as gold standard in Japan. The daVinci surgical system (Intuitive Surgical, Sunnyvale, CA, USA) provides the advantages of simplification and precision of exposure and suturing because of allowing movements of the robotic arm in real time with increased degree of freedom and magnified 3-dimentional view. These main advantages of robot-assisted surgery are expected to be applied to pediatric urology patients. In this review, we discuss the recent advances in robot-assisted reconstruction surgery in pediatric urology, such as pyeloplasty for ureteropelvic junction obstruction and ureteral reimplantation for vesicoureteral reflux, and provide a critical summary of current knowledge on its outcome. In conclusion, urological reconstruction surgery for children could be replaced with robot-assisted surgery, which may be established as minimally invasive surgery in the future.