Major urological oncological surgeries can be performed using minimally invasive robotic or laparoscopic methods with similar early perioperative outcomes compared to conventional open methods.

Robotic and laparoscopic surgical methods (RLM) are increasingly being used for urological oncological procedures. We compared the outcomes in a cohort of patients undergoing procedures by either RLM or open methods (OM) at a single institution. The data on 279 consecutive patients undergoing major urological oncological procedures from September 2000 to June 2005 was entered into a Microsoft Access database and queried. Continuous variables were compared using the Wilcoxon rank sum test and categorical variables were compared using Fisher's exact test. P values were compared to a significance level of 0.05. Of the 279 patients who underwent urological oncological surgeries, OM and RLM were used in 139 (49.8%) and 140 (50.2%) of patients, respectively. Numbers of perioperative mortalities and morbidities were not statistically different in the OM group versus the RLM group. Primary urological oncological surgeries can be performed without significantly increased perioperative complications by RLM compared to OM.