Enhanced Robotic Technique Benefits Kidney Donors

John Church and Stephen Smith share a lifelong friendship. For more than 30 years the former coworkers traveled together, attended sporting events, and countless social gatherings. So, when Church, 60, of Delmar, learned Smith, 64, of East Greenbush, was going on nightly dialysis due to kidney failure, he didn’t hesitate to be tested to see if he would match as a kidney donor.

Despite his odds of matching Smith being one in 100,000, Church was a match. Also in his favor, Church would be one of the first patients to undergo the surgery using a new technique offered by Albany Medical Center’s Kidney Transplant Program—robotic nephrectomy—a less invasive option for kidney donation and transplantation, improving the experience for living kidney donors.

“I was committed to donating my kidney to Stephen either way, but I was happy to hear that there was a much less invasive procedure with a better chance of success,” Church recalled. “They said recovery would be four to six weeks and they were pretty spot on.”

Robotic nephrectomy is the removal of a kidney using the da Vinci robotic surgical system. The arms of the robotic instrument are inserted through small incisions, similar to laparoscopic surgery, and controlled by the surgeon from a console. In a living donor nephrectomy, a healthy kidney is removed from one individual and transplanted into the patient in need of a new kidney. These procedures traditionally have been performed laparoscopically or in open (traditional) surgeries.

“The robotic technique provides a three-dimensional view and smaller, more flexible instruments in which to remove the kidney, often leading to a quicker recovery for the patient with less pain and scarring than a traditional surgery,” said Rauf Shahbazov, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Transplant Surgery and expert in robotic surgery at Albany Medical Center. “Our Kidney Transplant Program has a reputation for providing high- quality, compassionate care to patients throughout our region and we’re proud to offer this latest technique to enhance care even further.”

Because more than 90,000 people are on the kidney transplant waiting list in the United States, some people choose to be tested to determine if they are a match for a friend, loved one, or in some cases a stranger. Living donors go through a series of evaluations to determine their suitability to donate.

“The impact of robotic surgery on donors is great. We hope that with minimized pain and a faster recovery, more people will consider living donation,” said Dr. Shahbazov.

Church and Smith are grateful for the positive experience they had.

“I felt very well prepared by the kidney transplant team, and I would highly encourage people to at least investigate the process, especially if you have a loved one who is in desperate need of extension of life,” said Church.

“One of the great things for me was that I could be local, because my support group is all here,” Smith agreed. “I couldn’t ask for better care or concern. It was very personal and I felt that it was personal for the providers as well.”

Albany Medical Center’s Robotic Surgery program, instituted in 2003, has served tens of thousands of patients for procedures in cardiac, general, gynecological, urological, otolaryngology (ENT), thoracic, pulmonary, hepatobiliary, bariatric, pediatric, and now transplant surgery.