Key clinical point: In patients with early-stage gastric cancer and visceral obesity, robotic gastrectomy (RG) is associated with lower incidence of postoperative complications and improved survival vs. laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG).
Major finding: In patients with high visceral fat area (VFA), RG vs. LG was associated with lower incidences of all complications (2.7% vs. 8.2%; P = .019) and intra-abdominal infectious complications (2.0% vs. 6.6%; P = .048). LG was an independent risk factor for overall (odds ratio [OR] 3.281; P = .012) and intra-abdominal infectious (OR 3.462; P = .021) complications in patients with high VFA. The overall survival in patients with high VFA was significantly higher with RG vs. LG ( P = .045).
Study details: This article reports a retrospective study of 1306 patients with clinical stage I-II gastric cancer who underwent minimally invasive gastrectomy between 2012 and 2020.
Disclosures: No funding source was identified for this study. The authors received personal fees outside this work.
Source: Hikage M et al. Advantages of a robotic approach compared with laparoscopy gastrectomy for patients with high visceral fat area. Surg Endosc. 2022 (Mar 16). Doi: 10.1007/s00464-022-09178-x