Ultrasonic shears assistance can shorten the console time in robotic gastrectomy for early gastric cancer

BACKGROUND: Robotic gastric surgery has been introduced and is being performed in many Japanese facilities. There are some limitations of devices capable to be used in the robotic arms in the da Vinci Surgical System. We have reviewed our first ten cases with early gastric cancer who underwent robot-assisted gastrectomy and have compared the operative time between cases who underwent the operation only with an electric cautery device and those in whom laparoscopic coagulating shears (LCS) through an assistant port were used. FINDINGS: We used an electric cautery device only in cases 1–3, and LCS in cases 4–10 except case 9. The mean operative time was 454 min in cases where only robotic devices were used and 414 min in those with LCS assist. The mean console time of 251 min in those with LCS assist was significantly shorter than that of 306 min in cases where only robotic devices were used. The number of dissected lymph nodes was satisfactory, and the estimated blood loss was small. Postoperative complications in two cases were slight and transient with short hospital stay. CONCLUSION: Assistant use of ultrasonic shears is useful to shorten the console time in robotic gastrectomy.