Safety, effectiveness, and rapid adaptation of robotic gastrectomy for advanced gastric cancer.

Abstract

161 Background: As robotic surgery techniques advances, robotic gastrectomy has emerged as an alternative modality for advanced gastric cancer (AGC). However, there is a lack of supporting evidence regarding the safety, effectiveness and surgeon acceptance of robotic gastrectomy for AGC patients. Methods: An ambispective cohort study was conducted. We compared surgical and oncological outcomes between robotic and traditional laparoscopic gastrectomy for AGC patients. The Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) method was developed and used to analyze the learning curves of robotic gastrectomy for AGC by two surgeons who had different surgical experience. Results: From August 2011 to June 2017, a total of 134 AGC patients were performed robotic gastrectomy by surgeon A (n = 42) and surgeon B (n = 147). And there were 238 AGC patients received traditional laparoscopic gastrectomy which performed by the same two surgeons over the same period. There were no significant differences between the two operation methods regarding the clinicopathologic characteristics and long-term outcomes (p=0.737). However, robotic gastrectomy group had less operative blood loss (229 ml vs. 240 ml, p=0.031) and less Clavien-Dindo Grade II to IV complications (p=0.006) than laparoscopic group. Clinicopathologic characteristics, short-term and long-term outcomes of the patients treated by surgeon A and surgeon B are similarity. CUSUM analysis showed that operative time reached a stable state after around 12 cases in surgeon A who had more open gastrectomy experience than laparoscopic gastrectomy experience, and 21 cases in surgeon B who had more laparoscopic gastrectomy experience than open gastrectomy experience. The stable operation time was 242 min for surgeon A and 236 min for surgeon B. The number of lymph node dissections was 38 for surgeon A and 28 for surgeon B during their capacity-increasing phase. Conclusions: Robotic gastrectomy achieved superior short-term outcomes and comparable long-term outcomes compared with traditional laparoscopic gastrectomy for AGC patients. Surgeons with sufficient experience in either open or laparoscopic gastrectomy can rapidly overcome the learning curve and performed gastrectomy for AGC patients safely.