Comparison of short-term efficacy between domestic robot and laparoscope in patients undergoing radical resection for rectal cancer.

A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of rectal cancer patients who underwent radical resection of rectal cancer in the Department of Colorectal Oncology, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University. A total of 476 patients were enrolled in the study, including 50 cases in the domestic robot group (Group K) and 426 cases in the laparoscopic group (Group L). After propensity score matching (PSM), there were 39 cases in Group K and 114 cases in Group L. Group K used the KD-SR-01 surgical robot system, while Group L used the traditional laparoscopic system. The postoperative complications and other postoperative - related outcomes were compared between the two groups.

All patients underwent successful surgery, with no conversion to open surgery or palliative surgery, resulting in a 100% surgical success rate. Compared with Group L, Group K showed a lower incidence of postoperative complications (χ²=3.959, P=0.047), less intraoperative blood loss (Z=−5.155, P<0.001), and a shorter time to first postoperative flatus (Z=−5.692, P<0.001). The NASA-TLX score indicated that Group K was significantly superior to Group L in terms of the surgeon’s subjective physical demand (Z=−3.25, P=0.001). On the first postoperative day, the neutrophil count in Group K was significantly lower than that in Group L (t=−2.07, P=0.04). On the fifth postoperative day, both the white blood cell count and neutrophil count in Group K were significantly lower than those in Group L (white blood cell count: t=−4.57, P<0.001; neutrophil count: t=−5.32, P<0.001). Meanwhile, among obese/overweight patients, Group K had a lower incidence of postoperative complications, less intraoperative blood loss, and a shorter time to first postoperative flatus compared with Group L. In terms of postoperative pathology, the two groups showed similar results in all indicators except that Group K had more lymphovascular invasion (χ²=6.12, P=0.013).

Compared with laparoscopy, the application of domestic surgical robot in the short-term efficacy after radical resection for rectal cancer patients shows lower incidence of complications, less intraoperative blood loss, faster postoperative flatus, lower postoperative inflammatory levels, and less physical consumption for surgeons. For overweight and obese rectal cancer patients, the domestic surgical robot also provides lower incidence of postoperative complications, less blood loss, and faster time to first flatus