(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Robot-assisted surgery seems to be helpful in
treating some head and neck cancers, according to a new report.
Doctors at the University of Alabama at Birmingham studied the safety of
robot-assisted surgery in 36 patients with tumors involving the oral cavity,
throat or larynx. Eighty-one percent underwent successful robotic operations.
Negative margins (when no cancer cells are found at the edge or border of the
removed tissue) were obtained in all patients who successfully completed
surgery. Of those, 21 had breathing tubes removed before leaving the operating
room. The average operating time was 99 minutes and the average hospital stay
was less than three days.
"The surgical robot has several advantages over traditional endoscopic and open
approaches, including three-dimensional visualization, tremor filtration and
greater freedom of instrument movement," the authors write.
Patients who had smaller tumors appeared more likely to have successful
robot-assisted procedures.
"Robotic surgery in the head and neck offers the possibility of limited surgical
morbidity [illness], reduced hospital stay and improved lesion visualization
over open approaches and traditional transoral [through the mouth] techniques,"
the authors wrote.
Source: Archives of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, April 2009
