A new cut for robotic liver surgery

A close-to-open cutting method was used for robotic liver resection, with no bile leaks and shorter hospital stays than after laparoscopy.

• No robotic patient had a bile leak, compared with 3.1% after laparoscopic resection.
• Robotic cases included more intermediate- and high-complexity operations.

The method uses repeated, small openings of bipolar forceps to divide liver tissue and expose small vessels and bile ducts early. This review of consecutive cases cannot show whether the technique itself improved outcomes.