Days at Home Up to 30 Days After Robotic Versus Laparoscopic Colorectal Surgery

Area of Science:

• Colorectal Surgery
• Surgical Technology
• Patient-Centered Outcomes

Background:

• "Days at home up to 30 days" is a novel metric assessing patient time at home post-surgery.
• This metric includes inpatient stays, transfers, and readmissions within 30 days.
• It offers a patient-centered perspective on surgical recovery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare "days at home up to 30 days" between robotic and 3-dimensional laparoscopic colorectal surgery.
• To evaluate established outcome metrics alongside this novel patient-centered outcome.

Main Methods:

• Prospective cohort study involving adult patients undergoing colorectal surgery.
• Comparison between robotic and 3-dimensional laparoscopic approaches.
• Outcome measures included days at home, readmission rates, and complication rates.

Main Results:

• Robotic surgery for ultra-low/low anterior resection and abdominoperineal resection resulted in significantly more days at home (23 vs. 15) and shorter index admission (7 vs. 15 days).
• No significant differences were observed in major complications or 30-day readmission rates between the surgical approaches.
• No significant differences were found for right hemicolectomy or high anterior resection.

Conclusions:

• Robotic surgery for specific colorectal procedures increases days at home by reducing hospital stay length.
• "Days at home up to 30 days" can enhance informed consent and complement traditional endpoints in clinical trials.
• Patient selection was at the surgeon's discretion in this unrandomized study.