Introduction
•Robotic cholecystectomies (CCY) represent a growing number of CCY.
•Increasing need for complex elective cholecystectomy (CEC): CCY after prior percutaneous cholecystostomy tube placement, aborted prior CCY, or in the setting of known severe inflammation.
•While robotic surgery has been studied in standard CCY, without demonstrated benefits in cost or complications, this has not been compared for the subgroup of CEC.
Methods
•Single-center retrospective cohort study (2018-2024) of adults undergoing robotic (R-CEC) or laparoscopic (L-CEC) complex elective cholecystectomy by a hepatobiliary surgeon
•Primary outcome: Unplanned additional procedure (endoscopic or percutaneous) due to complication from cholecystectomy.
Conclusions
•For CEC, robotic approach reduces unplanned interventions, complications, conversion, and EBL.
•Total hospital costs are comparable once postoperative resource utilization is considered.
•These findings support a role for robotic cholecystectomy in CEC with equivalent total cost and improved clinical outcomes.