Robotic total mesorectal excision: operative technique and review of the literature

Abstract

In recent years, an increasing number of reports have been published on robotic colorectal surgery; this modality has also garnered an increasing amount of attention from the colorectal society. Most of the interest has been in robotic total mesorectal excision (TME) for rectal cancer. The purpose of this article is to briefly introduce our technique for total robotic TME and to review the recent literature regarding robotic TME for rectal cancer to summarize the current evidence on clinical and oncologic outcomes.