Bladder diverticulectomy is a surgical operation for symptomatic or large bladder diverticula. Typically, bladder diverticula
are because of infravesical obstruction, although congenital diverticula can occur that may be large and symptomatic. The
ability to excise the diverticulum completely, avoid important adjacent structures, and close the bladder defect in a watertight
fashion are key fundamentals to this operation. Traditionally done via an open extravesical, intravesical, or combined approach,
bladder diverticulectomy can now be done in a minimally invasive fashion. Both laparoscopic and robot-assisted methods have
clear advantages over open surgery, including smaller incision, reduced pain, improved cosmesis, and reduced blood loss, with
an equivalent functional result. Large bladder diverticula, particularly those involving the ureteric orifice which required
ureteric reimplantation, were often considered beyond the scope of conventional laparoscopy. Recently, use of robotic technology
as a means of facilitating laparoscopic excision of bladder diverticula has provided the ability to treat large and more complex
diverticula. Advantages of the robotic approach are the finer precision and dexterity of the instruments coupled with three-dimensional
imaging. Although there are several case reports describing pure laparoscopic diverticulectomy, as far as we are aware there
are no published reports of robotic bladder diverticulectomy. This paper will outline a safe and reproducible surgical technique
for performing robotic bladder diverticulectomy using the da Vinci-S surgical system.
Keywords Laparoscopy - Robot - Bladder diverticulum - Bladder diverticulectomy