A recent literature review and meta-analysis of worldwide data, published in Journal of Urology, reports that undergoing partial nephrectomy using a robotic surgical approach resulted in outcomes that were mostly superior, or at least as good as, those seen with open or laparoscopic partial nephrectomy. The analysis included data from 33 studies including 20,282 patients.

Robotic partial nephrectomy was found to be superior to open partial nephrectomy in terms of blood loss, transfusion, complications, hospital stay, readmissions, glomerular filtration rate, recurrence rate, and overall mortality.

Use of the robot was also determined to be superior to laparoscopic partial nephrectomy for time to restore blood supply to the kidney (ischaemia time), complications during and after surgery, positive margins, glomerular filtration rate, and overall mortality. There were similar rates of conversion to radical nephrectomy between the 2 groups.

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