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Cleveland Clinic says a 70-year-old patient, Joanne Kukula, received the first robotic-assisted dual kidney transplant in the United States in March 2024. The hospital reports that she went home three days after surgery. The milestone concerns a specific U.S. procedure—not the first robotic dual kidney transplant worldwide—and the hospital’s account does not establish whether the approach is safer or more effective than open surgery.
What happened in the March 2024 operation
Kukula developed kidney failure after treatment for multiple myeloma. Cleveland Clinic says an initially identified donor kidney was found to be unviable. Later, the transplant team judged two small kidneys from a single deceased donor suitable for transplantation together.
Surgeon Mohamed Eltemamy, MD, used a multiport robotic surgical system to place both kidneys through one small incision. Cleveland Clinic describes the operation as its first robotic-assisted bilateral dual kidney transplant in the United States. Here, “bilateral” refers to placing the kidneys on both sides of the torso.
The clinical rationale for using two donor kidneys is that a small kidney may not provide enough function on its own. Cleveland Clinic program director Alvin Wee, MD, explained: “Sometimes, when we receive an offered donor kidney, after further analysis we find one kidney to be small with not enough functionality,” and, “When that happens, we request both donor kidneys which, together, can provide more than 100% functionality.” This is the treating team’s explanation of the decision in Kukula’s case, not a claim that every pair of small kidneys is appropriate for dual transplantation. Cleveland Clinic’s patient story provides its account of the case.
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What the robotic approach changed
The reported distinction is the access method: the team introduced both kidneys through one small incision with a robotic system, rather than using two incisions or a large midline incision. Eltemamy described the approach this way: “Instead of using two incisions or a big midline incision we can place the kidneys on both sides of the torso through one small incision.” That statement explains the surgeon’s rationale; the case account does not compare incision pain, complications, or recovery against another surgical method.
Robotic assistance does not mean a robot performed the transplant independently. The report describes a surgical team using a multiport robotic system during the operation. The system and incision arrangement are features of this procedure, not evidence on their own of better outcomes.
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What is known about Kukula’s recovery—and what is not
Cleveland Clinic reports that Kukula was discharged three days after surgery, experienced little incision pain, and returned quickly to everyday activities. In the hospital’s account, Kukula said: “Everything went well, and I really didn’t have much pain from the incisions.” These are the reported early recovery details from her patient story.
The public account does not provide an operative duration, blood loss, measured graft-function results, complication statistics, or long-term follow-up for Kukula. It is a hospital patient story about one person, not a peer-reviewed report of this case or a comparative clinical study. It therefore cannot show that robotic dual transplantation is safer or more effective than open surgery.
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How this U.S. milestone fits the earlier record
The Cleveland Clinic procedure was not the first robotic-assisted dual kidney transplant worldwide. A 2015 paper by Frongia, Cadoni and Solinas describes a single such operation performed in Italy in August 2013. The authors reported an operating time of 400 minutes and blood loss of 120 mL for that Italian case; those figures do not describe Kukula’s operation. They also reported immediate function of both grafts, discharge on day seven, and a good condition without hemodialysis at 24 months. The authors cautioned that larger patient samples and longer follow-up were needed to assess the approach’s effectiveness. The 2015 case report documents that earlier experience.
In a separate 2025 account, Cleveland Clinic described a distinct milestone: what it calls the first successful robotic-assisted transvaginal ipsilateral dual kidney transplant worldwide, performed in June 2025. That procedure placed both kidneys on one side and introduced them through a vaginal incision. It differs from Kukula’s 2024 bilateral procedure. Cleveland Clinic also reported that its team performed 60 robotically assisted kidney transplants in 2024; this is an institution-reported annual volume, not a national statistic. The 2025 account describes those later milestones.
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How to interpret the hospital’s program figures
Cleveland Clinic’s patient-story page says its program performs more than 300 transplants annually, with approximately 10% performed robotically, but it does not clearly state the measurement period for those figures. They describe the hospital’s program, not transplant activity across the United States. The same institution later reported 60 robotically assisted kidney transplants in 2024; the figures use different descriptions and should not be treated as a national comparison or as proof of the clinical benefit of a particular technique.
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