Robotic urological surgery in patients with prior abdominal operations is not associated with increased complications.

Background: The da Vinci Surgical Robotic System is being increasingly used to perform complex urological operations by minimally invasive techniques. Prior abdominal surgery associated with intra-abdominal adhesions may complicate robotic surgery. Methods: We used a cohort of consecutive 49 patients undergoing a variety of robotic urological procedures at our institution to study the impact of prior abdominal operations on early perioperative complications. Results: A total of 21/49 (43%) patients (Group A) had no history of prior abdominal surgery and the rest 28/49 (57%; Group B) had undergone prior abdominal surgery. The incidence of peritoneal adhesions was significantly higher in patients with prior abdominal surgery compared to the rest of the cohort, 54% versus 10% ( P = 0.002). The median operative time, estimated blood loss, postoperative drop in hemoglobin, time to hospital discharge, postoperative narcotic analgesic use and postoperative complication rate between group A and group B were not statistically different. The overall perioperative complication rate for the entire cohort was 14.3%, with 6–8% of complications occurring in each of the two groups ( P = 1.0). Comparative subset analysis of 28 patients in Group B, 15 (54%) and 13 (46%) with or without intra-abdominal adhesions did not reveal a significant difference in perioperative complication rates either. However, operative time was longer in patients with intra-abdominal adhesions compared to patients without, median of 590 (281-922) and 434 (153–723) min respectively, although not statistically significant ( P = 0.059). Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that robotic urological surgery can be performed in patients with prior abdominal surgery without increased perioperative complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]