Perioperative, renal function and oncological outcomes of robot-assisted radical nephroureterectomy for patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma

Purpose To report perioperative, renal function and oncological outcomes of robot-assisted radical nephroureterectomy (RNU) for patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC). Methods This was a retrospective single-arm monocentric study including all consecutive UTUC patients treated with robot-assisted RNU at our institution between 2014 and 2022. Descriptive statistics with median and interquartile range (IQR) for continuous variables and numbers with frequencies for categorical variables were used to report perioperative and renal function outcomes while Kaplan–Meier curves were computed to present extravesical and intravesical recurrence-free survival(RFS) as well as cancer-specific (CSS) and overall survival (OS) with the corresponding 95% confidence intervals(CIs). Results Overall, 70 patients with a median age of 69.6 [63.3–74.9] years were included in our study. With regards to perioperative outcomes, the median operative time was 157 [130–182] min with a median blood loss of 200 [100–300] cc. Intraoperative complications occurred in 4 (5.7%) patients but no conversion to open or laparoscopic surgery was required. Postoperative complications occurred in 9 (12.9%) patients, including 5 (7.1%) with grade ≥ 3 complications according to the Clavien–Dindo classification. The median length of stay was 4 [3–6] days. With regards to renal function outcomes, the median postoperative loss in estimated glomerular filtration rate at discharge was 16 [10.25–26] mL/min/1.73 m 2 . With regards to oncological outcomes, the 3-year extravesical and intravesical RFS, CSS and OS rates were 73.6 [62.8–86.2]%, 68.1 [54.6–85]%, 82.5 [72–94.4]% and 75.3 [63.4–89.5]%, respectively. Conclusion We report favorable perioperative and oncological outcomes with expected decrease in renal function after robot-assisted RNU for patients with UTUC.