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Published on: June 13, 2025
Initial clinical experience with saroa, a haptic feedback-enabled surgical assist robot, in pulmonary anatomical
Hironori Ishibashi1, Ryo Wakejima2, Ayaka Asakawa2
1Department of Thoracic Surgery, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Institute of Science Tokyo, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8519, Japan. hishiba.thsr@tmd.ac.jp.
Objective:
To evaluate the initial clinical experience with the Saroa surgical system for pulmonary anatomical resection and to assess its perioperative safety.
Methods:
This retrospective observational study included 45 consecutive patients who underwent pulmonary anatomical resection using the Saroa surgical system. Pulmonary anatomical resections included lobectomy (n = 26) and segmentectomy (n = 19). Robot-related lung and vascular injuries were defined as the safety-specific endpoints.
Results:
The median age was 69 years, and 24 patients (53.3%) were male. The cohort comprised 36 patients with primary lung cancer, seven with metastatic lung tumors, and two with benign lung tumors. The median total operative time was 199 min, and the median console time was 145 min, accounting for approximately 70-75% of the total operative time. The median estimated intraoperative blood loss was 40 mL. Postoperative complications occurred in 15.6% of patients and were limited to postoperative air leaks. No perioperative mortalities were observed.
Conclusions:
In this initial clinical experience, Saroa-assisted pulmonary anatomical resection was performed safely without robot-related lung or vascular injuries. This suggests that the incorporation of haptic feedback does not compromise surgical safety during early clinical use.
