Obese patients who received robotic kidney transplants had
fewer wound complications than patients who received traditional “open”
transplant surgery, according to surgeons at the University of Illinois
Hospital & Health Sciences System.
The findings should allow more obese patients to receive
kidney transplants.
Patients with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 35 who
have end-stage kidney disease are often denied transplantation, and patients
with a BMI over 40 often die on dialysis without an opportunity for transplant.
Obesity “markedly increases the risk of wound infection, which lowers graft and
patient survival,” said Dr. Jose Oberholzer, chief of transplantation surgery
at UI Hospital and lead author of the study, in the March issue of the American
Journal of Transplantation.