Robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery for upper tract urothelial carcinoma

Abstract

When initially robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery was introduced in urologic field, the focus was on radical prostatectomy and partial nephrectomy. It was quite true that upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC), which had no major problem with laparoscopic operations, was late in the introduction of robotic surgery. One of the reasons for the late introduction of the robot for UTUC was difficulty in port placement due to relatively wide operation field. However, through various port arrangement modification, lots of UTUCs are treated with robot-assisted laparoscopic surgeries.