Robot-assisted cervical esophagectomy with simultaneous transhiatal abdominal procedure for thoracic esophageal carcinoma

Minimally invasive robot-assisted cervical esophagectomy has been sporadically reported as a novel thoracic esophagectomy technique for patients with thoracic esophageal carcinoma. Most reports indicate that the abdominal component of robot-assisted cervical esophagectomy is performed sequentially after the cervical phase. However, if the cervical and abdominal phases are performed simultaneously using a nerve integrity monitoring system with no administration of muscle relaxants, there are two major advantages: a reduced risk of recurrent nerve palsy and a shorter operative time. We herein report our experience performing novel robot-assisted transcervical esophagectomy with a simultaneous transhiatal abdominal approach using a nerve integrity monitoring system. Thirty cases of robot-assisted cervical esophagectomy performed from 2023 to April 2024 were reviewed. The operative and short-term surgical outcomes of this procedure were compared with those of robot-assisted cervical esophagectomy using a sequential abdominal approach, and the feasibility and efficacy of the simultaneous procedure were analyzed. All patients successfully underwent robot-assisted cervical esophagectomy with no intraoperative adverse events. There were no differences in the patients' demographic or operative data between the two groups. There was no difference in the mean operation time for the cervical procedure (p = 0.23). However, there was a significant difference in the total time for the whole procedure (sequential group: 453.8 ± 26.8 min, simultaneous group: 291.2 ± 36.1 min; p < 0.01). There were no differences in postoperative surgical complications between the groups. There was also no difference in the total number of surgically harvested mediastinal lymph nodes (p = 0.33). Robot-assisted transcervical esophagectomy, a new technique for thoracic esophageal cancer, was safe and feasible under intraoperative management using nerve integrity monitoring without muscle relaxants. This procedure facilitates intraoperative monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve activity, significantly shortening the total operative time.