Meta-analysis of Outcomes Compared between Robotic and Laparoscopic Gastrectomy for Gastric Cancer

This meta-analysis was performed to evaluate and compare the outcomes of robotic gastrectomy (RG)and laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG) for treating gastric cancer. A systematic literature search was carried outusing the PubMed database, Web of Knowledge, and the Cochrane Library database to obtain comparativestudies assessing the safety and efficiency between RG and LG in May, 2013. Data of interest were analyzedby using of Review Manager version 5.2 software (Cochrane Collaboration). A fixed effects model or randomeffects model was applied according to heterogeneity. Seven papers reporting results that compared roboticgastrectomy with laparoscopic gastrectomy for gastric cancer were selected for this meta-analysis. Our metaanalysisincluded 2,235 patients with gastric cancer, of which 1,473 had undergone laparoscopic gastrectomy,and 762 had received robotic gastrectomy. Compared with laparoscopic gastrectomy, robotic gastrectomy wasassociated with longer operative time but less blood loss. There were no significant difference in terms of hospitalstay, total postoperative complication rate, proximal margin, distal margin, numbers of harvested lymph nodesand mortality rate between robotic gastrectomy and laparoscopic gastrectomy. Our meta-analysis showed thatrobotic gastrectomy is a safe technique for treating gastric cancer that compares favorably with laparoscopicgastrectomy in short term outcomes. However, the long term outcomes between the two techniques need to befurther examined