Cleveland Clinic First in the World to Perform Robotic Single-Port Kidney Transplant

Cleveland Clinic is the first hospital in the world to successfully perform a robotic single-port kidney transplant, which enables all surgical instruments and the donor kidney to be placed through one small abdominal incision.
The Glickman Urological & Kidney Institute surgical team included Jihad Kaouk, M.D., director of the Center for Robotic and Image Guided Surgery; Alvin Wee, M.D., surgical director of Renal Transplantation; Mohamed Eltemamy, M.D.; David Goldfarb, M.D.; and Eric Miller, M.D. These surgeons combined their collective expertise in minimally invasive, robotic, and kidney transplant surgery to successfully complete the operation in October.
Dr. Kaouk and his team were the first in the country to successfully perform robotic single-port prostatectomy and kidney cancer surgery in September 2018. This latest surgical technique provides evidence that the single-port approach is feasible not only for patients with cancer, but also for patients who are in need of a kidney transplant.
“The aim was not only to make a smaller incision, but also to minimize the area in which the operation was performed by limiting the number of cuts inside the patient,” said Dr. Kaouk. “This resulted in minimal post-operative pain and no opioids needed after surgery.”--> READ MORE