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Abstract Aim: The purpose of this study is to compare the safety, effectiveness, and mid-term survival rates of robot-assisted minimally invasive esophagectomy (RAMIE) and video-assisted minimally invasive esophagectomy(VAMIE) using propensity score matching (PSM) analysis. Methods: A total of 842 patients undergoing minimally invasive esophagectomy at our department from January 2019 and October 2023 were analyzed, including 694 patients in VAMIE group and 148 in RAMIE group. PSM analysis was applied to generate matched pairs for further comparison. Operative outcomes and postoperative complications were compared between all patients in matched groups. Mid-term outcomes consisting of overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were compared. Results: After 1:4 PSM, 148 patients in the RAMIE and 592 patients in the VAMIE. Compared to VAMIE, RAMIE exhibited earlier removal of chest (P However, the surgical duration of RAMIE was longer than that of VAMIE. There were no significant differences between RAMIE group and VAMIE group in postoperative complications. There was no statistically significant difference in the 3-year OS (VAMIE:70.9% and RAMIE:75%) and DFS (VAMIE:56.1% and RAMIE:54.9%) between the two groups. Conclusion: Compared to VAMIE, RAMIE emerges as a viable and safe surgical approach. The mid-term survival outcomes between the two procedures are comparable, suggesting RAMIE as a potential alternative to minimally invasive esophagectomy.
Huang et al. (Mon,) studied this question.