[Robot-assisted rectal surgery: hype or progress?]

Minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery for rectal cancer has undergone a significant evolution during the last decades and has become the standard approach in specialized centers with better short-term and comparable oncological outcome to open surgery. The laparoscopic approach remains challenging and has various inherent technical challenges particularly associated with rectal cancer resection. Robotic colorectal surgery using the da Vinci® surgical system has been successfully introduced into clinical practice during recent years and provides specific technical advantages. Studies have shown that the robotic approach in colorectal surgery is safe and feasible with comparable results. It is associated with low conversion rates, more R0 situations for low rectal cancer with larger tumors and more neoadjuvant treatment compared to standard laparoscopy. Robot-assisted surgery is an attractive development of minimally invasive surgery and should also be further evaluated with mandatory monitoring of outcome parameters in registries in Germany.