Convincing evidence in favour of robotics in total mesorectal excision surgery?

Abstract

In The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Qingyang Feng and colleagues report secondary short-term outcomes of a randomised controlled trial comparing laparoscopic with robotic total mesorectal excision (TME) for rectal cancer, including 1240 patients from 11 Chinese hospitals over 4·5 years. The trial is well designed and executed with rigor, as reflected by the high level of data completeness. This superiority trial was powered for a 50% reduction of 3-year local recurrence rate. The authors report superiority of the robotic approach with respect to specimen quality, postoperative complications, and functional outcomes.