Robotic Segmentectomy

Pulmonary segmentectomy is a parenchymal-sparing alternative approach to lobectomy for the surgical management of stage I NSCLC. Segmentectomy is an anatomical resection that requires meticulous dissection and exposure of the segmental pulmonary artery, vein, and bronchus. The open thoracotomy approach has been gradually replaced by video-assisted thoracoscopy (VATS) and robotic-assisted minimally invasive approaches for performing segmentectomy for surgical resection for early-stage lung cancer. There are 2 recent randomized studies that demonstrated that pulmonary segmentectomy is equivalent to lobectomy for the surgical management of NSCLC tumors 2 cm or smaller. This article will review robotic-assisted segmentectomy techniques that are performed for the surgical management of stage I nonsmall cell lung cancer.