Gazi B. Zibari, MD, of Willis Knighton John C. McDonald Transplant Center, has performed North Louisiana’s first living donor kidney transplant using the da Vinci® XI robotic surgical system. The procedure was performed at Willis Knighton North.

A living donor kidney transplant is a surgical procedure to remove a healthy kidney from one person for transplant into someone else whose kidneys no longer function properly.

Traditionally, living donor kidney transplants have been performed using either a laparoscopic technique or open surgery. The da Vinci® XI robotic system allows surgeons to perform minimally invasive operations using small incisions and equipment while sitting at a computer console to direct the robot and surgical instruments virtually. Robotic surgery offers increased precision because optics are magnified, there is less pain, faster recovery and fewer incidence of wound complications.

Dr. Zibari noted robotic surgery broadens the transplant patient population that can be helped. He said now patients who are overweight or obese and who otherwise would have been declined to undergo transplantation due to potential complications, have a second chance at life-saving transplant.

“Willis Knighton has been a leader in minimally invasive surgery. Now this service will provide better quality care for our renal transplant patients,” Dr. Zibari said.