Robotic-Assisted Neck Dissection: Our Experience

Introduction  Robotic neck dissection surgery allows less invasiveness to significantly improve the aesthetic impact even though it does not compromise the principles of radical cancer procedure. Objective  The aim of our work is to describe our personal experience with robotic neck dissection surgery. Methods  A retrospective study was conducted by analyzing 10 patients subjected to a robotic neck dissection surgery. In the period from August 2012 to December 2018, these patients have been treated exclusively with robotic lateral-cervical dissection. Five of them were subjected to robotic-assisted transaxillary neck dissection (RATAND) and the other 5 treated with robotic-assisted retroauricular neck dissection (RARAND), then the surgical results have been compared with 5 similar dissections performed by open neck dissection (OND). Results  The average surgical time of RATAND was estimated in 166 minutes, the average surgical time of RARAND was estimated in 153 minutes and the average surgical time of OND was estimated in 48 minutes. Both robotic techniques are valid from the oncological and aesthetic point of view, but in terms of surgical time, they are much longer than the open technique. Conclusions  In terms of the post-operative decree, in our opinion, the retroauricular technique is more rapid for the purposes of recovery.