Patient positioning and prevention of injuries in patients undergoing laparoscopic and robot-assisted urologic procedures.

Positioning injuries in the perioperative period are one of the inherent risks of surgery, but particularly in robot-assisted urologic surgery, and can result in often unrecognized morbidity. Injuries such as upper or lower extremity peripheral neuropathies occur via neural mechanisms and injuries such as compartment syndrome, rhabdomyolysis, ischemic optic neuropathy, and acute arterial occlusion occur via vascular mechanisms. The risk of injury may be exacerbated by operative and patient-related risk factors. Patient-related risk factors include ASA class and BMI, while surgery-related risk factors include physical orientation of the patient and operative length. These injuries can be prevented or reduced by joint effort of the surgeon, anesthesiologist, and operating room staff.