I have thought about doing robotic kidney transplants for about 2 years now. In Indiana I was trained in open and laparoscopic donor nephrectomy. In NJ I am not involved with kidney transplants currently. The hospitals that I work at in the Saint Barnabas Health Care System have one of the top kidney transplants programs in the country.

My personal practice has changed to have most of kidney surgery done robotically. I think it is a little safer and quicker. I have offered training and assistance in starting a robotic surgery program at SBMC or NBI and expect that one day many of the donor nephrectomies will be done robotically.

For now we have one of the most talented transplant surgeons in the country and I think the results for donor nephrectomies at our institution are excellent.