Short-term outcomes of uniportal robotic-assisted thoracic surgery anatomic pulmonary resections: experience of Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital

Ye Ning; Zhigang Chen; Wentian Zhang; Yuming Zhu; Lei Jiang

doi:10.21037/acs-2022-urats-18

Short-term outcomes of uniportal robotic-assisted thoracic surgery anatomic pulmonary resections: experience of Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital

Ann Cardiothorac Surg. 2023 Mar 31;12(2):117-125. doi: 10.21037/acs-2022-urats-18. Epub 2023 Mar 28.

Authors

Ye Ning^#¹, Zhigang Chen^#², Wentian Zhang^#¹, Yuming Zhu¹, Lei Jiang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
² Department of Anesthesiology, Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: To share our experience of uniportal robotic-assisted thoracic surgery (U-RATS) anatomic pulmonary resection.

Methods: A retrospective study was conducted to compare the efficacy of U-RATS and biportal-RATS (B-RATS; 2 ports). From March 2021 to June 2022, 109 patients were enrolled in this study. The perioperative results of U-RATS and B-RATS were compared.

Results: Perioperative outcomes were comparable between the two groups, including the length of hospital stay and the rate of post-operative (post-op) complications. The mean duration of surgery of the two groups were 124.1 vs. 103.6 min (P=0.049), mean intraoperative blood loss was 131.7 vs. 143.1 mL, mean post-op hospital stay was 3.83 vs. 3.05 days (P=0.037), and the thoracic drainage of the first day after surgery were 230.9 vs. 207.1 mL. The visual analogue scale (VAS) scores after the first post-op day were 3.83 vs. 4.57 (P=0.018). No perioperative mortality occurred in either group.

Conclusions: Both U-RATS and B-RATS are safe and feasible methods for major pulmonary resections. U-RATS achieved similar perioperative outcomes and lower VAS-scores for the patients, which may improve the post-op experience and the quality of patients' lives. Further follow-up investigations are required to evaluate the long-term efficacy of U-RATS.

Keywords: U-RATS; Uni-portal; perioperative outcome; robotic-assisted pulmonary resection; single-portal.