Outcomes and references

Pioneering Sydney program

1. Lewis D. Health: dawn of a new era - robots in the operating theatre. The Sunday Telegraph (Sydney), 17 June 2007. Describes the first robot-assisted radical prostatectomy performed at St Vincent's in Sydney and the early Australian robotic urology program, in which Dr Kooner performed the first case and was involved in around 70% of the initial year's cases.
2. Al-Sameraaii A, Cohen P, Shin J, Chalasani V, Patel M, Moon D, Ong K, Winter M, Kearsley J, Kooner R. Retrograde nerve sparing and pelvic floor reconstruction in robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy: improved early continence and potency. Poster presentation, Australian and New Zealand Urological Society (ANZUS) meeting. Institutional series describing technique refinements used in the Sydney robotic prostatectomy program.

Adrenal and incidentaloma

3. Fassnacht M, Tsagarakis S, Terzolo M, et al. European Society of Endocrinology clinical practice guideline on the management of adrenal incidentalomas, in collaboration with the European Network for the Study of Adrenal Tumors. Eur J Endocrinol 2023;189:G1-G42. doi:10.1093/ejendo/lvad066.

Robotic vs open, systematic reviews

4. Coughlin GD, Yaxley JW, Chambers SK, et al. Robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy versus open radical retropubic prostatectomy: 24-month outcomes from a randomised controlled study. Lancet Oncol 2018;19:1051-1060. doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(18)30357-7.
5. Patel VR, Samavedi S. Robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy: a review of the current state of affairs. Int J Clin Pract 2014;68:805-811. Discussion of outcomes, nerve sparing, and learning curve in robotic prostatectomy, including the commonly cited > 200 case threshold for learning-curve plateau.

Pyeloplasty and upper-tract reconstruction

6. Gettman MT, Neururer R, Bartsch G, Peschel R. Anderson-Hynes dismembered pyeloplasty performed using the da Vinci robotic system. Urology 2002;60(3):509-513. doi:10.1016/s0090-4295(02)01761-2. One of the early clinical descriptions of robotic dismembered pyeloplasty; the four-arm variant used in the Sydney program added the robotic fourth arm as a dedicated retractor.

Kidney cancer and partial vs radical

7. Ljungberg B, Albiges L, Abu-Ghanem Y, et al. European Association of Urology guidelines on renal cell carcinoma: the 2022 update. Eur Urol 2022;82:399-410. doi:10.1016/j.eururo.2022.03.006. Summarises contemporary evidence on partial vs radical nephrectomy and the long-term renal-function rationale for nephron-sparing surgery.