수술로봇을 이용한 식도절제 및 종격동림프절 박리술

Robot-Assisted Thoracoscopic Esophagectomy and Lymph Node Dissection

Robotic surgery have been increasingly applied in the past several years to assist in a variety of operations. Some applications, such as in prostatectomy, have been widely adopted and have largely supplanted the alternative minimally invasive or open techniques. However, the use of surgical robots in esophagectomy has not been as common. Although a limited number of case reports demonstrated the feasibility of robotic esophagectomy, no large series of patients has been reported to date. The data on robotic-assisted esophagectomy suggest that the procedure is safe, feasible, and associated with perioperative outcomes similar to open and minimally invasive esophagectomy. Benefits of robotic system could be maximized when we do a extensive total mediastinal lymphadenectomy. For this procedure to gain widespread acceptance, identifiable benefit relative should be demonstrated in near future.