A study conducted at City of Hope, a cancer research organization based in Duarte, Calif., found that robotic liver surgery can be safely conducted as an outpatient procedure.
The study analyzed data of 307 patients from 2013 to 2023 who had received robotic liver surgery as outpatients, which the study defined as requiring less than two nights in a hospital, at three U.S.-based cancer centers and three based in the Netherlands, according to a June 10 news release from City of Hope.
The analysis found that 8% of patients sampled were discharged from the hospital on the same day, according to the release. Though the readmission rate of open liver surgery is 20%-25% at most major cancer centers, the readmission rate for robotic hepatectomy in the analyzed data was 1.6%.
"We can now deliver more cures and use less invasive treatment options. This study is proof that for the right patients and with the right tools — meaning robotic surgery — we can get people through a liver operation quicker and toward recovery and normal life faster," Yuman Fong, MD, chair of surgical oncology at City of Hope and director of City of Hope's Center for Surgical Innovation, who also led the study, said in the release.