Investigations of robotics and laparoscopy in minimally invasive hepatectomy

The concept of minimally invasive liver surgery has been widely accepted due to the advantages of fast recovery. Robotic hepatectomy is different from laparoscopic hepatectomy due to its fixed joint instruments, operation mode and magnification. This manuscript aims to compare the safety and efficacy of robotic and laparoscopic hepatectomy in the treatment of liver diseases. In this manuscript, we retrospectively studied 246 patients (143 with robotic hepatectomy and 103 with laparoscopic hepatectomy). The clinical basic information, operation time, intraoperative bleeding, conversion to laparotomy, postoperative hospital stay, anal exhaust time, postoperative eating time, ambulation time, and postoperative hematological indicators were analyzed. Robotic hepatectomy has certain advantages in shortening the length of hospital stay (4.9 ​± ​1.3 VS 6.8 ​± ​2.2 days, P ​< ​0.001) and reducing intraoperative bleeding (174.8 ​± ​142.7 VS 341.2 ​± ​187.3 ​ml, P ​< ​0.001) compared with laparoscopic hepatectomy. It is demonstrated that robotic hepatectomy is an outstanding surgical strategy for clinical application.