Laparoscopic Versus Robotic Lateral Pelvic Lymph Node Dissection in Locally-Advanced Rectal Cancer: A Cohort Study Comparing Perioperative Morbidity and Short-Term Oncological Outcomes.

Background: Robotic surgery has been associated with superior short-term outcomes in patients undergoing total mesorectal excision (TME) for organ-confined rectal cancer. However, whether this approach offers an additional benefit over laparoscopy when performing lateral pelvic lymph node dissection (LPLND) with TME or extended TME (e-TME) in locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) is not known.

Aims: This study was conducted to evaluate the outcomes of robotic and laparoscopic LPLND in patients with lateral pelvic node-positive LARC with reference to intraoperative safety, postoperative morbidity, pathological indices including nodal yield and node positivity rates, lateral pelvic recurrence rates, and short term event-free and overall survival.