Head and neck robotic surgery: pros and cons

Abstract

Robotic surgery was introduced to the head and neck area in 2005, fol- lowing urological, gynaecological and cardiothoracic robotic procedures. It has subsequently become very widely used. We review the pros and cons of robotic surgery, along with the devel- opment history focusing on head and neck procedures. While continued refinements to robotic surgery will likely overcome its present limita - tions, patients need to be apprised of the current limitations as well as the evidence regarding its technical and oncological safety. With the burgeoning use of robotic surgery and the collective history of prior cases, it is an appropriate time to consider the benefits and drawbacks—the 'pros and cons'—of robotic surgery. This review summa- rizes the development, benefits and limitations of robotic surgery. Also, looking ahead, we propose a way of overcoming the current limitations. Method We performed a broad search in Medline and PubMed databases of the published data reporting robotic surgery in the head and neck area. Searches were restricted to the English language. The search terms were 'robot', 'robotic', 'robotic surgery', 'TORS', 'robotic thyroid surgery' and 'robotic head and neck surgery'. Publications related to the clinical performance of robot-assisted head and neck sur- gery including thyroid surgery were included. Preclinical studies and non- clinical review articles were excluded. As there are few articles directly criti- cizing robotic surgery, we reviewed the identified articles to clarify the advantages and disadvantages of head and neck robotic surgery.