Open versus robot-assisted partial nephrectomy for highly complex renal masses: a meta-analysis of perioperitive and functional outcomes

Robot-assisted partial nephrectomy (RAPN) is increasingly being used for the complex surgical management of renal masses. The comparison of RAPN with open partial nephrectomy (OPN) has not yet led to a unified conclusion with regard to perioperative outcomes. To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature on the perioperative outcomes of RAPN compared with OPN. We performed a systematic search in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library database for randomized control trials (RCTs) and non-RCTs that compare OPN to RAPN. The primary outcomes included perioperative, functional and oncologic. The odds ratio (OR) and weighted mean difference (WMD) were applied for the comparison of dichotomous and continuous variables with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Five studies, comprising 936 patients, were included in the meta-analysis. Our findings indicated that there were no significant differences in blood loss, minor complication rate, eGFR decline from baseline, positive surgical margin, and ischemia time between OPN and RAPN. However, RAPN was associated with a shorter hospital stay (WMD 1.64 days, 95% CI − 1.17 to 2.11; p < 0.00001), lower overall complication rate (OR 1.72, 95% CI 1.21–2.45; p < 0.002), lower transfusion rate (OR 2.64, 95% CI 1.39–5.02; p = 0.003) and lower major complication rate (OR 1.76, 95% CI 1.11–2.79; p < 0.02) compared to OPN. Additionally, the operation time for OPN was shorter than that for RAPN (WMD − 10.77 min, 95% CI − 18.49 to − 3.05, p = 0.006). In comparison with OPN, RAPN exhibits better results in terms of hospital stay, overall complications, blood transfusion rate, and major complications, with no significant difference in intraoperative blood loss, minor complications, PSM, ischemia time, and short-term postoperative eGFR decline. However, the operation time of OPN is slightly shorter than that of RAPN.