Robotic resection of the rectum - what are the advantages?

Surgical treatment is the most important part of multimodal management of rectal cancer. In recent years, minimally invasive surgery has been preferred. Minimally invasive procedures include laparoscopy and more recently robotic surgery. Robotic surgery has been developed to eliminate the shortcomings of laparoscopy, especially the parallel position of instruments and their limited movement. The advantages of a robotic system should be most apparent in narrow and deep spaces, i.e. the lesser pelvis. The aim of this study was to analyze the short-term results of robot-assisted surgery for rectal tumors.

The study is a retrospective analysis of a cohort of 220 patients with robotic-assisted surgery for rectal cancer. The cohort was analyzed in terms of length of surgery, blood loss, number of conversions to open surgery, completeness of TME, distal and circumferential resection margin positivity, length of hospital stays and number of 30-day rehospitalizations. In addition, 30-day postoperative morbidity and mortality were assessed using the Clavien-Dindo score.

Robotic-assisted surgeries lasted an average of 184 minutes. In total, 5 operations were converted, i.e. 2.3%. Complete mesorectum was achieved in 90% of the patients. Severe postoperative complications, Clavien-Dindo score 3-4, were observed in 14% of the patients. Anastomotic complications occurred in 9.6% of the patients. The mean length of the hospital stay was 8.4 days.

Robotic surgery for rectal tumors is a safe method with an acceptable rate of complications. An established training method and a high degree of standardization of the surgical procedures are indisputable advantages of robotic systems, making it possible to achieve very good results in a short time. In terms of perioperative and early postoperative outcomes, robotic surgery outperforms laparoscopic surgery in some parameters.