Number of Lymph Nodes Dissected and Upstaging Rate of the N Factor in Robot-assisted Thoracic Surgery Versus Video-assisted Thoracic Surgery for Patients with CN0 Primary Lung Cancer

Overview

Journal Surg Today

Specialty General Surgery

Date 2022 Sep 9

PMID 36083513

Authors

Yuma Shindo

Masahiro Miyajima

Yasuyuki Nakamura

Yoshiki Chiba

Wataru Arai

Miho Aoyagi

Ryunosuke Maki

Kodai Tsuruta

Yuki Takahashi

Makoto Tada

Yoshiaki Takase

Atsushi Watanabe

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Purpose: The accuracy of lymph node (LN) dissection in robotic surgery for lung cancer remains controversial. We compared the accuracy of LN dissection in robot-assisted thoracic surgery (RATS) vs. video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS).

Methods: The subjects of this retrospective analysis were 226 patients with cN0 primary lung cancer who underwent robot-assisted or video-assisted thoracic lobectomy with LN dissection, in our department, between April, 2016 and February, 2021. We compared the numbers of all LNs and mediastinal LNs dissected, the time required for LN dissection, complications, and upstaging rates of the N factor between the groups. Furthermore, we performed an inverse probability of treatment weighting-adjusted analysis to reduce potential bias between the groups.

Results: The number of dissected LNs was higher in the RATS group in both the unweighted and weighted analyses. The time required for lymph node dissection was also longer in RATS. There was no significant difference in complications or in the upstaging rate of the N factor between the groups.

Conclusion: More LNs were dissected with RATS. Thus, the usefulness of robot-assisted surgery for LN dissection needs to be investigated further.

Citing Articles

Outcomes of robotic lobectomy for non-small cell lung cancer in a National Cancer Institute-Comprehensive Cancer Center National Cancer Database.

Baldonado J, Naffouje S, Parvathaneni S, Roy E, Toloza E, Fontaine J J Thorac Dis. 2023; 15(10):5349-5361.

PMID: 37969299 PMC: 10636448. DOI: 10.21037/jtd-22-1340.

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