A novel approach of robot surgery for colorectal cancer

The aim of this paper is to share our first experience of a novel procedure with da Vinci surgical system^® for colorectal cancer here in Japan and provide the current status of robot surgery. A 77-year-old male was transferred to our department for curative surgery of sigmoid colon cancer (T1N0M0). The patient was placed in Trendelenburg position and 5 ports were inserted into the abdominal cavity. After that, patient cart with 4 arms was docked on the left caudal side. Superior rectal artery and vein were divided, sigmoid colon was mobilized and rectum was dissected in robotic surgery. The outcomes of this case were comparable to those in the literature in terms of blood loss, morbidity and length of hospital stay, apart from operative duration due to being unfamiliar with robot. Robotic surgery might be feasible and safe procedure for colorectal cancer.