Open, video-assisted thoracic surgery, and robotic lobectomy: review of a national database

To date, reports on outcomes after robotic-assisted pulmonary resection have been confined to small, single-institution case series. Furthermore, no comparison has been made between robotic, open, and video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) procedures. We sought to compare the outcomes between these approaches using the State Inpatient Databases (SID).

Using the 2008 to 2010 SID, we identified patients who underwent an open, VATS, or robotic lobectomy from 8 states. Patients who underwent segmentectomy were also included. A comparison of outcomes was performed using a propensity-matched analysis.

We identified a total of 33,095 patients (open: 20,238; VATS: 12,427; robotic: 430). Case volumes for robotic resections increased over the study period from 0.2% in 2008 to 3.4% in 2010. Robotic resections were performed in all 8 states, and 38% were conducted in a community hospital. In propensity-matched analysis, robotic resections were associated with significant reductions in mortality (0.2% vs 2.0%, p = 0.016), length of stay (5.9 vs 8.2 days, p < 0.0001), and overall complication rates (43.8% vs 54.1%, p = 0.003) when compared with open thoracotomy. Robotic resection was also associated with reductions in mortality (0.2% vs 1.1%, p = 0.12), length of stay (5.9 days vs 6.3 days, p = 0.45), and overall complication rates (43.8% vs 45.3%, p = 0.68) when compared with VATS; however, none of these differences were statistically significant.

Case volume for robotic pulmonary resections has increased significantly during the study period, and thoracic surgeons have been able to adopt the robotic approach safely. Robotic resection appears to be an appropriate alternative to VATS and is associated with improved outcomes compared with open thoracotomy.