Surgical techniques: Esophagus: Robotic assisted minimally invasive esophagectomy

Abstract

As we have seen with most other traditional operations, esophagectomy has also been shown to be feasible in a minimally invasive fashion. Robotic assistance offers the same benefits normally expected when applied in other procedures. In the case of esophagectomy, these benefits may be magnified in terms of minimizing the usual severe insult to the patient from an operation that invades three body cavities. It is also advantageous due to the ability to perform a superior oncologic procedure in terms of meticulous mediastinal and periceliac nodal dissection; areas that are not easily exposed by traditional endoscopic or even open surgery.