Dr Moon was one of the first Australian surgeons to perform robotic surgery for kidney cancer, and he convenes the biennial National kidney and bladder cancer symposium for Australian and New Zealand specialists. A/Prof Moon has held multiple workshops training surgeons in the techniques of robotic kidney surgery, and in 2014 published the first Australian series demonstrating improved outcomes compared to traditional open techniques, even for complex tumours.
In 2018 A/Prof Moon published the largest Australian study of partial kidney removal (partial nephrectomy) for kidney cancer demonstrating significant benefits of robotic surgery [Moon et al ANZ J Surg, 2018 E194-199]
A/Prof Moon analysed 200 procedures comparing open and robotic surgery, and found that even though robotic surgery was used more often to remove larger and more complicated tumours than open surgery, those patients having robotic surgery showed advantages of:
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shorter hospitalization
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lower complication rates
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lower blood transfusion rates
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far lower risk of incomplete tumour removal (positive surgical margin)
Kidney function recovered equally well in patients undergoing robotic surgery, and these results support the argument that robotic surgery should become the gold standard for patients requiring kidney cancer surgery.
In 2021 A/Prof Moon then published an international multicentre series showing that robotic surgery can be used even in high risk situations where kidney function is poor or only one kidney is present. These patients previously may have been facing open surgery or lifelong dialysis but with robotic techniques can now be offered a keyhole operation to remove the cancer with less complications, faster recovery, and preserved kidney function
To watch a video presentation demonstrating the surgical techniques in such cases - see below. WARNING THIS VIDEO CONTAINS ACTUAL SURGICAL FOOTAGE