Initial Experience With Robotic Pancreatic Surgery: Technical Feasibility and Oncological Implications

Surg Laparosc Endosc Percutan Tech. 2016 Feb;26(1):31-7. doi: 10.1097/SLE.0000000000000232.

Abstract

Robotic surgery has been introduced in the field of minimally invasive surgery to improve the handling of high-demanding procedures with encouraging results. We aimed to evaluate the clinical safety and the oncological adequacy of robot-assisted pancreatic surgery by analyzing a consecutive series in terms of surgical and oncological outcomes. A total of 53 consecutive cases including 36 pancreatoduodenectomies (PD) and 14 distal pancreatectomies (DP) were evaluated. The overall postoperative morbidity and mortality were 32% and 3.8%, respectively. Radical resection was achieved in 93.7% of PD and 100% of DP, with a mean number of harvested lymph nodes of 29.8 for PD and 20.5 for DP. The 3-year cumulative overall survival was 44.2% and 73.9% for patient with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and nonductal malignancy, respectively. Robotic technology may be useful to reproduce conventional open pancreatic surgery with a minimally invasive approach, overcoming some of the intrinsic limitations of conventional laparoscopy.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Multicenter Study

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Anastomosis, Surgical / methods
  • Anastomosis, Surgical / statistics & numerical data
  • Carcinoma, Pancreatic Ductal / surgery*
  • Conversion to Open Surgery / statistics & numerical data
  • Feasibility Studies
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Laparoscopy / methods*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Operative Time
  • Pancreatectomy / methods*
  • Pancreatic Neoplasms / surgery*
  • Pancreaticoduodenectomy / methods*
  • Postoperative Complications / etiology
  • Prospective Studies
  • Robotic Surgical Procedures / methods*
  • Treatment Outcome