Evaluation of a robot-assisted video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery programme

At present, there is increasing interest in surgical procedures using a robot-assisted device. The aim of this study was to investigate whether robot-assisted video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) was more effective than conventional VATS. A total of 64 VATS lobectomies in Papworth Hospital (Cambridge, UK) were included in the study. In 34 cases the lobectomies were performed using conventional VATS (CV group), while in the remaining 30 cases the lobectomies were performed using robot-assisted VATS (Robotic group). In the robot-assisted VATS, FreeHand®, a thoracoscopic camera controller produced by Freehand 2010 Ltd. (Eastleigh, UK), was used. The duration of the thoracoscopic surgery in the Robotic group was 145.50±10.43 min, whereas in the CV group the duration was 162.79±9.40 min. The surgery duration in the Robotic group was 10.62% shorter than that in the CV group (P<0.05). The rates of bleeding, pulmonary infection, arrhythmia and prolonged air leak (≥5 days) in the Robotic group were 0, 3.33, 26.67 and 13.33%, respectively, while the corresponding rates in the CV group were 2.94, 5.88, 20.59 and 17.65%, respectively. No significant differences were identified in the postoperative complication rates between the two groups (P≥0.05). There was no perioperative mortality in the study. Compared with conventional VATS, FreeHand-assisted VATS provides a similar rate of postoperative complications and a reduced surgery duration, and may be beneficial for the recovery of the patients following VATS.