Intra-abdominal cooling system limits ischemia-reperfusion injury during robot-assisted renal transplantation

Robot-assisted kidney transplantation is feasible; however, concerns have been raised about possible increases in warm ischemia times. We describe a novel intra-abdominal cooling system to continuously cool the kidney during the procedure. Porcine kidneys were procured by standard open technique. Groups were as follow: Robotic renal transplantation with (n=11) and without (n=6) continuous intra-abdominal cooling and conventional open technique with intermittent 4°C saline cooling (n=6). Renal cortex temperature, magnetic resonance imaging and histology were analyzed. Robotic renal transplantation required a longer operative time, either with or without the cooling system, compared to the open approach (70.4±17.7 min and 74.0±21.5 min vs. 49.4±12.4 min, p-values