Researchers at Seoul National University Hospital have found robotic surgery is the most efficient method in performing pancreatic and duodenal surgeries, the hospital said Wednesday.
SNUH Professor Jang Jin-young, who had developed robotic pancreaticoduodenectomy for the first time in Korea, presented the results comparing robotic operations with conventional laparoscopic surgeries. Jang's team had achieved 100 cases of robotic pancreaticoduodenectomy earlier this year.
The team compared the surgical outcomes of 67 patients diagnosed with choledocholithiasis from 2004 to 2016. Of the 67 patients, 49 underwent laparoscopic surgery, and 18 had robotic surgery.
Although the average operation time was shorter for patients that received laparoscopic surgery, patients who underwent robotic surgery had 59 percent less bleeding and 18 percent shorter hospitalization period.
As the anastomosis with the small intestine is difficult after biliary resection, postoperative anastomotic leakage and stenosis are the most critical surgical results. However, laparoscopic surgery resulted in complications in 16.3 percent of the cases, whereas the incidence of robotic surgery was zero.
“Robot surgery is advantageous in the field of precision images as it provides enlarged images of up to 10 times based on the 3-D high resolution and also has 360-degree free joint movement,” the hospital said. “Although it is more expensive than conventional surgery, the number of operations is increasing 50 percent every year worldwide because of various advantages such as the safety of surgery.”
The researchers also noted that robot-assisted biliary anastomosis is much more sophisticated, minimizing complications.
Also, in a study that compared robotic surgery with laparoscopic surgery of 237 patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy from 2015 to 2017, robotic surgery proved to be a more superior option for patients who needed high-level operations.
“When performed by a skilled surgeon, the robotic surgery can completely remove the tumor similar to that of laparoscopic surgery, while making the operation less painful as well as providing a more rapid recovery time,” Professor Jang said. “Robotic surgery can be more advantageous in surgery that requires anastomosis, such as pancreas and bile duct surgery, which are the two most difficult abdominal surgeries.”
Robotic surgery will become more and more useful, Jang added.
The results of the research were published in Journal of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Sciences and Annals of Surgical Treatment and Research.