Last September, a living donor kidney transplant was performed for the first time using the Da Vinci single-port (SP) robotic platform.
The procedure allows the kidney to be implanted through a single 7 cm incision.
With six surgical robots, the hospital leads robotic surgery in the state.
The team from the Urology Service at Bellvitge Hospital has taken a further step forward in the application of robotic surgery with Europe's first living-donor kidney transplant performed using the Da Vinci SP. This platform allows three micro-articulated instruments and a 3D endoscope to be introduced through a single incision and a single robotic arm. Until now, there had only been precedents for this procedure in the United States.
The patient who received the transplant has already been discharged. Furthermore, over the past few days the Hospital de Bellvitge has performed two further living-donor kidney transplants using the single-port robot.
Last July, Hospital de Bellvitge became the first centre in the country to perform 300 robotic kidney transplants. The milestone was the result of the generosity of the donors and the expertise of a team of professionals with the Da Vinci multiport robot, which makes between three and five independent incisions through which the robotic arms with the various instruments and the camera access the body.
As Dr Òscar Buisan, Head of the Urology Department at Bellvitge Hospital, explains, the benefits for patients of the single-port robotic technology are significant, such as ‘it creates a single scar, reduces post-operative pain and accelerates the patient's functional recovery’.
The precision of surgeons' movements from the robot console is enhanced on the SP platform by a 360-degree range of motion and intuitive controls that promote versatile movement and surgical control to the extent that the surgeon can feel the force being applied at all times with the instruments thanks to the sensors they incorporate.
Furthermore, the SP platform incorporates optics and advanced image processing technology, which results in a clear and detailed 3D view of the surgical field, essential to ensure that incisions do not affect any tissue not involved in the procedure.
Robotic surgery and living donor transplantation go hand in hand at Bellvitge
The pioneering use of single-port robotic surgery for living donor kidney transplantation is the result of the expertise that Bellvitge has amassed in recent years. The robotic kidney transplant programme was launched in 2018 by Dr Francesc Vigués, who states that the expertise acquired since the programme's inception ‘has allowed patients with increasingly complex transplants to benefit from robotic access, enabling transplants that in some cases would not have been possible otherwise’. In this regard, the successful implementation in 2020 of the orthotopic robotic transplant, a technique first described and performed at Bellvitge University Hospital, is particularly noteworthy.
‘This expertise has made us a benchmark in this surgical procedure, enabling us to help launch the robotic transplant programme at multiple centres across the state and in other European countries,’ concludes Dr Vigués.
On the other hand, the growth of robotic kidney transplants at Bellvitge Hospital has facilitated the sustained increase in living donor transplants. In 2025, Hospital de Bellvitge led the country in kidney transplants (207) and also in living-donor transplants with 43 procedures, all performed using robotic surgery. In fact, it has led living-donor transplantation for the past three years. Thus, of the 300 robotic transplants, more than 90% have been from living donors.
At present, Bellvitge Hospital has six surgical robots. The latest model to be introduced was the Symani, designed for microsurgery and supermicrosurgery, in June. With this complement of surgical robots, the hospital has consolidated the leadership it has held in robotic surgery in Spain for several years. Bellvitge is the hospital that performs the most robotic procedures annually in Spain and is also one of the hospitals that applies this technology to the widest range of procedures, with excellent results in terms of a reduction in complications, average length of stay and postoperative pain. In 2025, Hospital de Bellvitge performed around 1,200 robotic procedures and expects to reach 1,600 in 2026 and nearly 2,000 in 2027.
In addition to Urology, the uniportal surgical robot is used in procedures in the departments of Gynaecology, Thoracic Surgery, General and Digestive Surgery, and Otorhinolaryngology. The forecast is to end 2026 with between 350 and 400 surgical procedures performed with the single-port robot, and to reach between 500 and 600 in 2027.