Functional outcomes after robotic radical cystectomy with intracorporeal diversion: A systematic review

BACKGROUND: Robotic assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) is considered a safe and feasible technique in patients with bladder cancer who are candidates for curative treatment. Intracorporeal urinary diversions (ICUD) represents one step forward into moving to an utterly minimal invasive procedure with the thought that it may improve patients outcomes and time to recovery after the surgical procedure. Overall, RARC has shown to provide similar oncological outcomes as other procedures. The impact of such approach in continence and sexual function of the patients is an important part of an integral health care of this subset of patients. OBJECTIVE: To describe the functional outcomes of RARC with ICUD across different manuscript evaluating this field. METHODS: A systematic literature search related to functional outcomes and diversion technique in RARC with ICUD, was performed on June 2019 using PubMed RESULTS: Out of 22 manuscripts evaluated we included 11 in our analysis. Although the functional outcomes in the studies we have included in this analysis seem to be adequate and consistent, the evidence is poor when comparing RARC with ICUD versus other approaches CONCLUSION: We consider that studies with better designs aiming to elucidate the impact of RARC with ICUD in the quality of life of the patients may improve the quality of the outcomes and would help to draw stronger conclusions.