The Evolution of Laparoscopic Right Donor Nephrectomy: Progression to Single Site Surgery

Background: Laparoscopic donor nephrectomy represents a significant source of allografts to patients with end- stage renal disease. Given the increasing wait-list and limited number of deceased donors, utilization of the right kidney is necessary to maximize the donor pool. Materials: We retrospectively reviewed 122 right-sided kidney donors; 73 hand-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomies (R-HAL-DN), 36 standard laparoscopic donor nephrectomies (R-LAP-DN), and 13 laparoendoscopic single site donor nephrectomies (R-LESS-DN). We compared these groups to matched left donors and each other, analyzing various parameters including operative times, warm ischemia time (WIT), estimated blood loss (EBL), incision length, length of stay (LOS), convalescence data and complications. Results: Right and left donors demonstrated no difference in analysis parameters in all 3 procurement techniques. When comparing all right donors total operative time and allograft extraction time were lowest in the R-LAP-DN group (p=0.003 & p=0.04, respectively). The R-LESS-DN group had the lowest EBL (p=0.06) and shortest incision length (p