Robotic surgery for early gastric cancer

Early gastric cancer (EGC) patients are annually increasing due to nationwide screening program. As long-term survival of EGC patients improved, the need for the surgical tool to improve the quality of life of the patient has risen, resulting in increased popularity of laparoscopic surgery. However, laparoscopic surgery has disadvantages such as limitation in vision and maneuverability, which has brought the invention of robotic surgical system. Robotic surgical system has merits over laparoscopic surgery in that it provides 3D visualization, endowrist with 7 degrees of freedom, and stable camera function. With these merits, the number of operations using robotic surgical system increased continually. Its method of surgery does not differ much from laparoscopic gastrectomy. Reports regarding the postoperative outcomes of robot gastrectomy so far showed that the result was no less satisfactory than those of laparoscopic surgery. However, robot surgical system has drawbacks of high cost and undefined long term postoperative results as of yet. The lack of a unique merit that can counterbalance the high cost is also a problem that has to be solved. And because the advantages of robot surgical system as a tool of minimally invasive surgery are distinct, additional randomized trials may have to be performed in order to define its merits over laparoscopic surgery.