• Wei-Song Shen, Hong-Qing Xi, Lin Chen, and Bo Wei.
• Department of General Surgery, Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital, 28 Fuxing Road, Beijing, 100853, China.
• Surg Endosc. 2014 Oct 1; 28 (10): 2795-802.

BackgroundRobot-assisted gastrectomy (RAG) for gastric cancer is still a controversial surgical technique for adequate tumor resection, lymphadenectomy, and postoperative outcome.MethodsA meta-analysis analyzed updated clinical trials that have compared RAG with laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy (LAG) to evaluate whether RAG is equivalent to LAG.ResultsEight studies were included in the analysis, comprising 1,875 patients. RAG was associated with a longer operative time (p < 0.05), lower estimated blood loss (p < 0.05), and a longer distal margin (p < 0.05). RAG can be performed safely with lower estimated blood loss and a longer distal margin than with LAG. Complications, hospital stay, proximal margin, and harvested lymph nodes for RAG and LAG were similar.ConclusionsRAG is as acceptable as LAG for obtaining safe complications and for performing radical gastrectomy.

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