Robot assisted lymphadenectomy in urology: pelvic, retroperitoneal and inguinal

Lymph node dissection represents an essential surgical step in the treatment of the most commonly treated urological cancers. The introduction of robotic surgery has lead to the possibility of treating these diseases with a minimally invasive surgical approach, but the surgical principles of open surgery need to be carefully respected in order to achieve comparable oncological results. Therefore, the robotic approach to urological cancers must include a carefully performed lymph node dissection when indicated. In the current manuscript we reviewed the current indications and extensions of lymph node dissection in prostate, bladder, testicular, upper urinary tract, renal and penile cancers respectively, with a special focus on the state of the art surgical technique for each procedure.

Minerva urologica e nefrologica = The Italian journal of urology and nephrology. 2017 Feb [Epub]

Giovannalberto Pini, Surena F Matin, Nazareno Suardi, Mihir Desai, Inderbir Gill, James Porter, Robert J Stein, Rene Sotelo, Franco Gaboardi, Francesco Porpiglia

Department of Urology, IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele-Turro, Milan, Italy - ., Department of Urology, Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA., Department of Urology, IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele-Turro, Milan, Italy., Institute of Urology, Keck School of Medicine, USC, Los Angeles, CA, USA., Swedish Medical Center, Seattle, WA, USA., Glickman Urological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA., Department of Urology, San Luigi Hospital, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.