Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 30, 2026
Robotic Left Hepatectomy using Indocyanine Green Fluorescence Imaging for an Intrahepatic Complex Biliary Cyst
Published on: June 24, 2022
Totally robotic right hepatectomy: surgical technique and outcomes
Pier Cristoforo Giulianotti1, Fabio Sbrana, Andrea Coratti
1Division of General, Minimally Invasive and Robotic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60612, USA. piercg@uic.edu
Hypothesis:
Robotic surgery for performance of right hepatectomy is safe and effective.
Design:
Case series from 2 medical institutions.
Setting:
University of Illinois at Chicago and Misericordia Hospital, Grosseto, Italy.
Patients:
Twenty-four patients underwent right hepatectomy between March 1, 2005, and January 31, 2010, using a robotic surgical system.
Main Outcome Measures:
Intraoperative blood loss, operative time, morbidity, mortality, and long-term oncologic follow-up.
Results:
The procedure was converted to open surgery in 1 patient (4.2%). The overall mean (SD) operative time was 337 (65) minutes (range, 240-480 minutes), and the mean (SD) intraoperative blood loss was 457 (401) mL (range, 100-2000 mL). Three patients (12.5%) underwent blood transfusion. There were no perioperative deaths and no reoperations. Six patients (25.0%) experienced postoperative morbidity, including transitory liver failure in 2 patients and pleural effusion, bile leak, fluid collection, and deep venous thrombosis in 1 patient each. The patients' diagnoses included colorectal liver metastases (n = 11), noncolorectal liver metastases (n = 4), hemangioma (n = 4), adenoma (n = 2), hepatocellular carcinoma (n = 1), hepatoblastoma (n = 1), and biliary amartoma (n = 1). At a mean follow-up duration of 34 months, no port site metastases were observed in patients with malignant pathologic findings.
Conclusions:
The zero mortality and acceptable morbidity of our series indicate that in experienced hands, robotic right hepatectomy is feasible and safe. Robotic surgery offers a new technical option for minimally invasive major hepatic resections. Long-term results seem to confirm oncologic effectiveness of the procedure.
