Robot-assisted oropharyngeal cancer surgery using the da Vinci SP system: a step-by-step case presentation

The da Vinci Single-Port (SP) system received CE Mark approval for transoral robotic surgery in January 2024. Nevertheless, clinical experience with this platform in Europe remains limited - particularly in the field of minimally invasive head and neck surgery. In this report, we present the case of a 51-year-old man with p16-positive squamous cell carcinoma of the right tonsil who underwent transoral robotic resection using the da Vinci SP system, combined with contralateral tonsillectomy and bilateral neck dissection, at a German university hospital. To our knowledge, this represents one of the earliest reported oncologic applications of the da Vinci SP system in Germany following CE mark approval, highlighting its integration into established multimodal treatment pathways for oropharyngeal carcinoma. Further multicenter studies are required to define its role in clinical implementation compared with established techniques such as transoral laser microsurgery and earlier robotic systems.