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Endourology Progress pp 173–182Cite as

LESS: Upper Tract, Lower Tract, and Robotic Surgery

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Abstract

Since the beginning of the laparoscopic surgery in urologic field, many kinds of urological surgeries have been performed laparoscopically. A laparo-endoscopic single-site surgery (LESS) using only one access port was devised due to the desire of doctors and patients to leave less wound and postoperative pain than conventional laparoscopic surgery, which needed multi-ports. Almost all urological laparoscopic operations have been tried and reported with single port due to the development of surgical instruments and techniques. However, it is still not mainly performed in many hospitals because of the drawbacks of long operation time and relatively long learning curve compared to conventional laparoscopic surgery. Recently, the frequency of LESS has been more decreasing because robot surgery has replaced many laparoscopic procedures.

However, LESS is still one option of the most minimally invasive surgery for various urologic disease. In recent years, lots of robotic surgical systems are being developed based on single port, further development of LESS is expected. In this chapter, we will learn the history of urologic LESS and basic instruments. Further, most commonly performed urologic LESSs, such as radical nephrectomy, partial nephrectomy, pyeloplasty, and radical prostatectomy, would be described. We will also look into the recent status of robotic LESS and the robotic LESS systems to be developed in the future.

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Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Dr. Hyung Ho Lee, Dr. Joon Chae Na and Dong Soo Jang for their support with medical illustrations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea

    Woong Kyu Han

  2. Department of Urology, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea

    Young Eun Yoon

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  1. Woong Kyu Han
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Correspondence to Woong Kyu Han .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Eddie Shu-yin Chan

  2. Department of Urology and Andrology, Kansai Medical University, Hirakata, Osaka, Japan

    Tadashi Matsuda

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Han, W.K., Yoon, Y.E. (2019). LESS: Upper Tract, Lower Tract, and Robotic Surgery. In: Chan, Ey., Matsuda, T. (eds) Endourology Progress. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3465-8_22

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