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Learning Curves for Robotic Surgery: a Review of the Recent Literature

  • Urosurgery (P Sooriakumaran, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Use of robot-assisted surgery is increasing since its advent in the 1990s. Robotic surgical training is the subject of much interest. Robotic technology would seem to facilitate training allowing more rapid attainment of competence. The safety and success of a particular surgical team depends on adequacy of training of its members. A learning curve is a way of describing the changes observed in surgical outcomes with increasing experience of the surgeon and can be used to plan training programs. The majority of published papers regarding learning curves are retrospective with small numbers of surgeons with different levels of experience comparing a variety of different outcomes. In this review, we describe the published literature on learning curves in robotic urological surgery, with the aim of offering a guide to both experienced and naïve surgeons who plan to learn new robotic procedure.

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Abbreviations

BCR:

Biochemical recurrence

CD:

Clavien-Dindo

EBL:

Estimated blood loss

ePLND:

Extended pelvic lymph node dissection

LC:

Learning curve

LoS:

Length of stay

LRP:

Laparoscopic radical prostatectomy

OT:

Operating time

PCa:

Prostate cancer

PSM:

Positive surgical margin

RALP:

Robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy

RAPN:

Robot-assisted partial nephrectomy

RARC:

Robot-assisted robotic cystectomy

WIT:

Warm ischemia time

References

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Urology, University College Hospital, London, UK

    Giorgio Mazzon, Ashwin Sridhar, Gerald Busuttil, James Thompson, Senthil Nathan, Tim Briggs, John Kelly & Greg Shaw

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  1. Giorgio Mazzon
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  2. Ashwin Sridhar
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Correspondence to Giorgio Mazzon.

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Conflict of Interest

Giorgio Mazzon, Ashwin Sridhar, Gerald Busuttil, James Thompson, Senthil Nathan, Tim Briggs, John Kelly, and Greg Shaw each declare no potential conflicts of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Urosurgery

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Mazzon, G., Sridhar, A., Busuttil, G. et al. Learning Curves for Robotic Surgery: a Review of the Recent Literature. Curr Urol Rep 18, 89 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11934-017-0738-z

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