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Background:

Laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy (LDP) reduces postoperative morbidity, hospital stay, and recovery as compared with open distal pancreatectomy. Technical limitations of laparoscopic surgery may limit patient eligibility and require conversion to open or hand-assisted surgery to maintain patient safety. We hypothesized that robot-assisted distal pancreatectomy (RADP) was superior to LDP as a result of improved surgical manipulation and visualization, potentially expanding the indications for minimally invasive pancreatectomy.

Methods:

We performed a retrospective analysis of all minimally invasive distal pancreatectomies at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center between January 2004 and February 2011. We compared the perioperative outcomes, 90-day morbidity and mortality of our first 30 RADPs to 94 consecutive historical control LDPs.

Results:

Patients undergoing RADP and LDP …