The impact of high body mass index on patients undergoing robotic pancreatectomy: A propensity matched analysis

Patients with high body mass index are associated with a higher risk of complications after open pancreatectomy. We aimed to investigate the perioperative outcome for patients with high body mass index after robotic pancreatectomy.

This is a retrospective, propensity-score matched cohort analysis. From our prospectively maintained database, we identified consecutive patients with body mass index >25 who underwent robotic pancreatectomy between January 2016 and December 2018. Propensity score matching with open pancreatectomy was applied in 1:2 fashion based on age, gender, American Society of Anesthesiologists classification, surgery type, histology, neoadjuvant therapy, and body mass index during the same study period.

A total of 127 patients were included. The mean age for all patients was 61.7 ± 12.8 years and 65 (51.2%) were male. Median body mass index was 29.9 (interquartile range, 27.0-31.8) for both groups. Propensity score matching provided equally distributed general demographic and clinicopathological factors. Robotic pancreatectomy was associated with decreased blood loss (100 mL vs 300 mL, P < .001) and shorter hospital stay (7 vs 9 days, P = .019).

Robotic pancreatectomy is associated with decreased blood loss and shorter length of hospital stay in overweight patients. Robotic approach may help alleviate morbidity in overweight patients undergoing pancreatectomy.