Robotic liver resection

Abstract

Robot-assisted surgery has recently become an important treatment modality in the field of gastrointestinal surgery. However, it is still under development in hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery probably because of technical difficulty and insufficient appropriate instruments. Nevertheless, functional advantages equipped in the robotic system may compensate for the inherent lacks in conventional laparoscopic liver resection. Particularly, highly complex anatomic liver resection and liver resection with vasculo-biliary reconstruction are expected to be future important targets for robotic liver resection. Herein, we present our experience with 83 cases of robotic liver resection and discuss our surgical results.