558 Comparison of Length of Post-Operative Hospital Stay Following Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Nephrectomies with Traditional Laparoscopic Nephrectomies: A Single-Centre Retrospective Study

Abstract

Abstract Aim The study aims to compare the length of post-operative hospital stay following robot-assisted laparoscopic (RAL) nephrectomies with stays following traditional laparoscopic (LAP) nephrectomies at a district general hospital. Method This study retrospectively compares the post-operative length of hospital stay using information documented on patient’s paper notes scanned onto an online system. Between January 2021 and December 2021, 25 patients underwent LAP nephrectomies in this unit. Following the introduction of RAL at our unit, all patients requiring a nephrectomy had this procedure done using RAL. Between January 2022 to November 2022, 33 patients underwent a RAL, 3 of which required conversion to open and excluded from this study. Additionally, data on age, BMI, tumour size and ASA score was collected to identify any evidence of systemic bias. Results Mean post LAP hospital stay was 3.60 (±3.24) nights, while post RAL was shorter at 2.07 (±1.44) nights to a statistically significant degree (p-value = 0.0357). There was no significant difference in any of the demographic factors between the two groups (LAP and RAL). When including data for partial nephrectomies (n = 20; LAP = 11, RAL = 9) and pyeloplasties (n = 9; LAP = 5, RAL = 4), length of post-operation hospital stay was still significantly shorter for patients who had undergone robot-assisted laparoscopy. Mean post-LAP hospital stay was 3.56 (±2.62) nights, while post-RAL was shorter at 2.21 (±1.68) nights to a statistically significant degree (p-value = 0.00666). Conclusions The use of robot-assistance during laparoscopic nephrectomies was associated with significantly shorter post-operative hospital stays over traditional laparoscopic procedures in this cohort of patients.