A BARCELONA hospital has become the first in Europe to carry out kidney transplants using a robot that operates through a single seven-centimetre incision.
Bellvitge University Hospital, in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, has successfully performed four transplants from living donors using the Da Vinci robotic platform.
The first patient was operated on in July and has since been discharged.
The system passes a camera and surgical instruments through one small opening.
Once inside the body, the instruments unfold and move with great precision, allowing surgeons to carry out complex operations with fewer incisions.
Compared with conventional robotic surgery, which uses several incisions, the single-port method is less invasive. Patients have less pain after the operation, are left with a single 7cm scar and recover more quickly.
A standard multi-port surgical robot needs up to six openings for its instruments and camera, with a lead surgeon and two assistants operating.
The single-port platform uses one robotic arm to insert three highly flexible instruments and a 3D endoscope through a single opening.
The surgeon controls them from a console with a 360-degree range of movement, and sensors let them feel how much force they are applying.
Head of Urology, Dr. Oscar Buisan said the team was also considering the robot for removing kidneys from living donors, as he believes it is a better option than conventional keyhole surgery.
The hospital also saves on days patients spend in hospital and on pain treatment.
Bellvitge, part of the Catalan Health Institute (ICS), carried out more kidney transplants than any other hospital in Spain in 2025, with 207.
It also led the country for transplants from living donors for the third year running, with 43, all of them performed robotically.
In 2020 the team performed the world’s first robotic orthotopic kidney transplant, a technique it developed.
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