Intracorporeal Versus Extracorporeal Anastomosis in Robotic Right Colectomy: A Multicenter, Triple-blind, Randomized...

Area of Science:

• Colorectal surgery
• Minimally invasive surgery
• Surgical anastomosis techniques

Background:

• Previous studies suggest intracorporeal anastomosis enhances recovery after colectomy.
• This research evaluates intracorporeal anastomosis within optimized perioperative care settings.
• Patient-reported outcomes were not previously assessed in this context.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare postoperative recovery between intracorporeal and extracorporeal anastomosis in minimally invasive right colectomy.
• To assess patient-reported outcomes following robotic right colectomy with different anastomosis techniques.

Main Methods:

• A multicenter, triple-blind, randomized clinical trial involving 89 patients.
• Robotic right colectomy performed with either intracorporeal or extracorporeal anastomosis.
• Primary outcome: patient-reported recovery using the Quality of Recovery-15 questionnaire.

Main Results:

• No statistically significant difference in patient-reported recovery between intracorporeal and extracorporeal anastomosis groups.
• No differences observed in postoperative pain, nausea, ambulation, bowel function, or hospital stay.
• Intracorporeal anastomosis creation took significantly longer (17 vs 13 min, P=0.003).

Conclusions:

• Intracorporeal anastomosis does not offer significant advantages in postoperative recovery compared to extracorporeal anastomosis for minimally invasive right colectomy.
• Optimized perioperative care did not reveal differences in recovery between the techniques.