A comparison of outcomes between the traditional laparoscopic and totally robotic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass procedures

Background Roux-en-Y gastric bypass is considered to be the gold standard of bariatric procedures. Minimally invasive surgical techniques have been demonstrated to decrease recovery time and provide for favorable cosmetic outcomes. The drawback of traditional laparoscopic techniques for the surgeon comes in the form of 2D monitoring of not always intuitive instrument manipulation. The da Vinci Surgical System provides surgeons with a 3D view and more intuitive instrument manipulation. This study was conducted in order to compare the surgical outcomes and assess the learning curve of traditional laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypasses (LRYGB) to totally robotic Roux-en-Y gastric bypasses (TRRYGB). A single surgeon’s 100 most recent patients who underwent traditional LRYGB and the first 100 patients who underwent TRRYGB were included in this study. Data was collected on patient age, gender, body mass index (BMI), co-morbidities, surgical time, length of admission, and complication rates. No significant differences were found between study groups with respect to age, gender, BMI or any recorded co-morbidities. The mean operative times for patients 1–50 in the TRRYGB and LRYGB groups were 204.34 ± 90.19 min and 151.16 ± 47.16 min, respectively (P = 0.0004). Mean operative times were 159.60 ± 48.26 min and 166.66 ± 44.95 min for patients 51–100 in the TRRYGB and LRYGB groups, respectively (P = 0.45). No significant differences were found between study groups with respect to post-surgical complications or 30-day outcomes. Our data shows that TRRYGB compares favorably to the traditional laparoscopic approach, while maintaining patient safety.