A study, published in Diseases of the Esophagus, examined the operative and survival outcomes of 100 consecutive robotic-assisted transhiatal esophagectomies procedures.
Minneapolis-based Virginia Piper Cancer Institute's D.H. Dunn, PhD, and colleagues conducted a retrospective review of 100 consecutive patients who had their esophageal cancer treated using robotic-assisted transhiatal esophagectomy.
Here's what they found:
1. Researchers documented a median operative time of 264 minutes with an estimated blood loss of 75 mL.
2. The median intensive care unit stay was one day, while the median hospital stay was eight days.
3. The most common postoperative complication was nonmalignant pleural effusion (38 percent) and recurrent laryngeal nerve injury (33 percent).
4. Thirty-day mortality rate was 2 percent.
5. Median progression-free rate was 41 months while median overall survival rate was 53 months.
6. One-year survival rate was 95 percent, while the 3-year survival rate was 57 percent.
Researchers concluded, "In our experience, robotic-assisted transhiatal esophagectomy is an effective and safe oncologic surgical procedure in a carefully selected group of patients with acceptable operative time, minimal blood loss, standard postoperative morbidity and adequate progression-free rate and overall survival rate profiles."