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Objective To compare the postoperative recovery of patients receiving robotic laparoscopic insulinoma enucleation before and after implementing enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocol. Methods Anesthetic data of patients who received robotic laparoscopic insulinoma enucleation from January 2013 to March 2016 in Peking Union Medical College Hospital were collected and analyzed. All patients were be divided into routine group and ERAS group. Results The study enrolled 68 patients, whose obesity rate was 69.1%. The intraoperative fluid volume of ERAS group was lower than that of the routine group (P＜0.05), while the difference of urine output was not significant. The maximum peak airway pressure of ERAS group was also lower than that in the routine group(P＜0.05). The postoperative hospital stay length of ERAS group was shorter (P＜0.05). The postoperative complications were uncommon in the ERAS group. Conclusions ERAS protocol can shorten the hospital stay length of patients receiving robotic laparoscopic insulinoma enuleation and postoperative complications are likely to be reduced.

The robotic surgical system has been widely used in surgeries in various fields for its advantages over human eyes and hands with a magnified, stereoscopic view, flexible manipulation and ability to filter tiny tremors. The application of the robotic surgical system in vascular surgery is still in its infancy, and many issues concerning the operation techniques and safety need to be explored, especially in terms of the indications, key techniques, standardized procedures and management of intra- and post-operative complications. Of greater importance are the promotion of clinical studies that compare robotic surgical system versus open or laparoscopic surgery in vascular surgery and the collection and analysis of the long-term follow-up data. The evidence obtained from these studies will facilitate the wide application of robotic surgical system in vascular surgery. In addition, the defects in the current robotic surgical system need be improved, such as the lack of tactile feedback, the large size of the mechanical arm, and the interference between the arms. The era of robotic surgery has come, which urges greater efforts in both technical development and clinical studies of the robotic surgical system.

The robotic surgical system applied to gastrectomy is regarded as a safe technique which has similar short- and long-term outcomes compared to laparoscopic and open gastrectomy. With the iteration of anastomotic staplers and improvement of anastomotic skills, coupled with the flexible robot's rotatable device making the manual intracorporal anastomosis easier, gastrointestinal reconstruction after robotic gastrectomy has also started to move toward the era of complete intracorporal anastomosis. In order to further standardize the indications and operating points, the Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery Group of Surgical Branch of Chinese Medical Doctor Association, the Gastrointestinal Surgery Group of Surgery Branch of Chinese Medical Association, the Digestive Tract Cancer Committee of Chinese Research Hospital Association, and Cancer Gastroenterology Society of Chinese Anticancer Association jointly organized domestic experts in general surgery field to formulate the Chinese expert consensus on intracorporal digestive reconstruction after robotic gastrectomy (2021 edition). The definition of intracorporeal digestive reconstruction after robotic gastrectomy is that all surgical steps of digestive reconstruction are done totally in the abdominal cavity by robotic system or all steps mentioned above except jejunojejunal extracorporeal anastomosis. The digestive reconstructions mainly include Billroth I anastomosis, Billroth II anastomosis, Billroth II+ Braun anastomosis, Roux-en-Y anastomosis, Uncut Roux-en-Y anastomosis after distal gastrectomy; double-tract anastomosis, esophagogastric anastomosis by stapler or hand-sewn technique (double flap gastroesophagostomy) after proximal gastrectomy; FEEA method, π-type anastomosis, overlap method and modified procedures, Uncut Roux-en-Y anastomosis, Parisi's double-loop reconstruction after total gastrectomy. Compared with extracorporeal digestive reconstruction, intracorporeal digestive reconstruction operated by robotic system can minimize the surgical incision, reduce the risk of abdominal exposure and accelerate postoperative recovery, etc. Previous studies have demonstrated promising results. We believe that the publication of the consensus will guide surgeons to break through the technical barriers of intracorporeal digestive reconstruction after robotic gastrectomy, which will be more and more widespread with the gradual maturity of domestic robotic systems by bringing less medical costs.

Objective: To explore the safety and short-term and long-term efficacy of robot-assisted radical esophageal cancer surgery. Methods: A prospective randomized controlled trial was conducted. Patients who were preoperatively diagnosed as stage 0-IIIB esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and suitable for minimally invasive surgery in our hospital from January 1, 2014 to June 30, 2018 were prospectively enrolled. Those of age ≥75 years having received preoperative neoadjuvant therapy, contradicted to anesthesia or operation due to severe complications, with history of thoracotomy or laparotomy, with concurrent malignant tumors, without complete informations or refusing to participate in this study were excluded. Participants were randomly divided into the thoracoscopy-laparoscopy group and the robot group using a random number table in ratio of 1:1. Preoperative clinicopathological data, surgical data and postoperative outcomes were recorded. The patients were followed up mainly by telephone. Follow-up endpoint was recurrence of esophageal cancer and death. Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate survival rate. The survival difference between the two groups was analyzed using the log-rank test. Results: According to above criteria, a total of 192 esophageal cancer patients were enrolled finally, including 144 males and 48 females with mean age of (61.9±8.6) years. The robot group had 94 cases, including 72 males and 22 females with mean age of (61.3±8.2) years, and the thoracoscopy-laparoscopy group had 98 cases, including 72 males and 26 females with mean age of (62.4±9.1) years. There were no significant differences in baseline data between the two groups (all P >0.05). Operation was abandoned in one case in each group due to extensive pleural cavity metastasis and one case in each group was converted to thoracotomy. The success rate of operation was 97.9% (92/94) in the robot group and 98.0% (96/98) in the thoracoscopy-laparoscopy group (χ(2)=0.002, P =0.996). The number of lymph nodes dissected in the robot group was significantly higher than that in the thoracoscopy-laparoscopy group (29.2±12.5 vs. 22.8±13.3, t =3.433, P =0.001), while there were no significant differences in operative time, intraoperative blood loss, R0 resection rate, postoperative 30-day mortality, postoperative hospital stay, ICU stay, time to withdrawal of chest drainage tube, ICU readmission, and postoperative morbidity of complications between the two groups (all P >0.05). The median follow-up time was 21 (3 to 57) months. During the follow-up, 3 cases and 4 cases were lost, and 2 cases and 3 cases died of other diseases in the robot group and in the thoracoscopy-laparoscopy group respectively. Recurrence occurred in 39 cases during follow-up, including 14 recurrences in the robotic group with 1- and 3-year recurrence-free survival rates of 92.4% and 87.6% respectively and the median recurrence time of 15 (9 to 42) months. There were 25 recurrences in the thoracoscopy-laparoscopy group with 1- and 3-year recurrence-free survival rates of 81.7% and 67.9% respectively and the median recurrence time of 9 (3 to 42) months. There was significant difference in recurrence-free survival between the two groups (χ(2)=4.193, P =0.041). Conclusions: The robotic surgical system has good oncology effect and surgical safety in the radical operation of esophageal cancer, which deserves further research and promotion.