Robotic surgery for a right or extended right hepatectomy showed benefits over laparoscopic surgery, a retrospective study found.
Among 220 matched patient pairs, robotic surgery was associated with a reduced open conversion rate (8.6% vs 17.7%, P=0.01) and a shorter postoperative stay (mean 9.1 vs 9.9 days, P=0.048) compared with laparoscopic surgery, reported Brian Goh, MBBS, MMed, of Singapore General Hospital, and colleagues.
A subset analysis performed after a center’s learning curve of 50 cases confirmed shorter length of stay with robotic surgery (median 6 vs 7 days, P=0.04), but showed no significant difference in conversion rates (7.6% vs 10.8%, P=0.46), Goh and co-authors wrote in JAMA Surgery.
