Minimally invasive right colectomy: challenges and clinical practice

Since the introduction of laparoscopic and robotic technology in surgical practice, there have been multiple reports and a few clinical trials on their use in colorectal surgery. Although the application of laparoscopy to right colectomy has been increasingly adopted in many institutions around the world, there are still several open issues regarding the effective role of robotics and single incision surgery. This is a review of the relevant surgical literature evaluating the risks, benefits, and costs of minimally invasive approaches to right colectomy (RC) surgery.

Retrospective and prospective articles spanning the past 20 years were reviewed to identify the current application of minimally invasive surgery in RC. A review of the most relevant papers comparing open vs. laparoscopic vs. robotic approaches will illustrate the role of minimally invasive surgery in current clinical practice in terms of surgical outcomes, technical advantages and oncological outcomes. We then pooled the evidence for and against the application of laparoscopy and robotics in intracorporeal vs. extracorporeal anastomosis creation, single incision and natural orifice surgery.

Evidence shows that compared to open surgery, laparoscopic RC provides lower postoperative morbidity, faster return to normal bowel function and a shorter length of hospital stay, with a similar oncological outcome. The application of robotics to RC procedure has proven to be safe and feasible, however the intraoperative and postoperative outcomes are similar with the laparoscopic technique and no clear advantages have been demonstrated. When adopted in a single incision technique and natural orifice surgery, robotics can help to overcome the limitations of laparoscopy, enabling the surgeon to perform scar-less surgery.

Laparoscopy surgery, whenever performed by adequately trained surgeons, can be safely applied to right colectomy and should be considered as the gold standard procedure. In terms of robotic surgery, to date, this technology needs more evidence from multicenter randomized clinical trials. New tools and instruments are needed to expand the field of single incision and natural orifice surgery, and make it available in current clinical practice.