Laparoscopic Kidney Transplantation

We present the details of the first laparoscopic transplantation of a kidney from a living, related donor, performed April 16, 2009. Surgical and functional results were acceptable. Surgical time was 240 min (53 min for vascular suture), with blood loss of 300 cm3 and a hospital stay of 14 d. Serum creatinine at discharge was 73 mmol/l. Laparoscopic kidney transplantation is a complex technique that requires previous experience in vascular and laparoscopic surgery. As with all novel procedures, technical modifications will be required to formalize its use and detailed comparisons will need to be made with standard procedures.