Comparison of Bipolar Vascular Sealing and Conventional Back-table Dissection

The usage of vessel sealing devices has been gaining popularity in all surgical specialties. Post-renal transplant drain placement is a common practice among transplant surgeons. However, prolonged drainage accompanied by surgical wound complications and perirenal fluid collections is a frequent complication experienced by the recipients. This study aimed to compare bipolar sealing with conventional back-table dissection in terms of post-renal transplant drainage duration, amount, surgical wound complication, and back-table preparation time.

Consecutive recipients receiving a living donor kidney transplant at Istinye University Organ Transplantation Center will be enrolled in this study. Istinye University Hospital Ethical Review Committee approved the clinical study (2/2021.K-66). Informed consent will be obtained from all individual participants included in this study. The recipients will be randomized into two groups by a simple randomization (i.e., flipping coin) method. In Group 1, bipolar sealing method will be used, and in Group 2, conventional silk tie ligature will be used during the back-table dissections of the harvested grafts. Data parameters including recipient age, gender, body mass index (BMI), cause of end-stage renal disease, dialysis modality, postoperative pain, surgical drainage duration, back-table time, cold ischemia time, and surgical site infections will be collected on a database by a research nurse. The exclusion criteria will be pediatric recipients and recipients who had received a kidney transplant previously. The donor nephrectomies will be performed using a pure laparoscopic technique. A standard right/left lower Gibson incision will be made in every recipient, and the renal bed will be prepared extraperitoneally. The external iliac vein and external iliac artery will be used for graft vessel anastomosis. Lymphatic vessels will be tied by 3/0 and 2/0 silk sutures in the conventional group, whereas bipolar sealing method will be used in the other.

Study investigators will be blinded to patient randomizations. All vascular anastomoses and bladder-ureter anastomoses will be performed by the primary surgeon (E.E). One closed-suction Hemovac drain will be placed at the lower pole of the graft in all recipients, and it will be removed when discharge is less than 50 ml over 24 hours. The Gregoir-Lich anti-reflux anastomosis technique performed all ureteroneocystostomies with Polydioxanone (PDS) sutures. A double J stent will be inserted in all cases. A Foley catheter will also be placed in the bladder and removed on the fourth postoperative day as recommended in the literature. All patients will be evaluated for pain on the postoperative 1 st day. The pain will be assessed with a visual analog scale, scoring from 0 to 10, with 0 being no pain and 10 being the worst pain ever experienced. Triple immunosuppression with tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil, and steroid will be initiated on post-renal transplant day 1 to all recipients. In addition, high-risk recipients will receive thymoglobulin as induction, while low-risk recipients will receive Basiliximab on days 0 and 4 post-transplant. All recipients will be anticoagulated by daily subcutaneous enoxaparin 0,6 cc injections starting on the day of surgery until the day of discharge. Patients will be followed in terms of pain, drainage length, and wound complications for 6 months. Surgical wounds will be assessed daily during the post-transplant 1 st week, then weekly afterward.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

Adult (aged 18 or higher) patients who will undergo a live-donor kidney transplant surgery in Istinye University Hospital and consent to participation in this study.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Pediatric (age lower than 18) recipients
* Patients who received kidney transplant before