Robotic pulmonary segmentectomy, initial experience in the Czech Republic

The initiation of lung cancer screening in Czechia and diagnosis in earlier stages has been reflected by an increasing demand for anatomical lung segmentectomy. The purpose of this study was to describe early results of the first robotic-assisted thoracoscopic segmentectomies performed in the country.

Our institution has performed 151 robotic anatomical lung resections since the initiation of the screening program in August 2020, which enabled us to attain the status of a proctoring and case observation centre. The robotic segmentectomy program was initiated after completing 70 robotic lobectomies. We performed a retrospective analysis of the results of our first 20 patients indicated for robotic segmentectomy.

Median age of the patients was 60, with 11 females and 7 males. The most common indications included primary lung malignancy (n=13), pulmonary metastasis (n=2) and benign lesions (n=3). We performed 11 simple segmentectomies, 6 complex (S2, S3, S1a+2, S10 on the right) and one right S6 segmentectomy with bronchoplasty. The mean number of harvested lymph nodes for NSCLC was 20, the mean blood loss was 25 mL (from 10 mL to 100 mL), and the mean operative time was 200 minutes. All resection margins were tumour-free. There was no conversion to thoracotomy. Two patients were excluded as they required conversion to robotic lobectomy given that their lesions were localized close to the intersegmental plane. One complication (recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis) occurred in 1 patient. Mean chest tube duration was 1.9 days and length of stay 3.9 days.

Our experience suggests that implementation of the robotic segmentectomy program after completion of the robotic learning curve provides promising outcomes. Robotic technology and preoperative planning facilitate this technically demanding procedure especially when bronchoplasty is required.