Gina Lynn Adrales and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University conducted a retrospective cohort study and concluded that robotic emergency cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal) is associated with a higher rate of postoperative complications compared to laparoscopic surgery. The analysis included nearly 845,000 people (mean age 45.6 years; 64.9 percent women) from US patient databases for 2016–2021. Using propensity score matching, they formed cohorts of over 35,000 participants each who underwent robotic or laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The results of their postoperative period analysis were published in the journal JAMA Surgery.
The incidence of common bile duct injury was similar between both types of surgeries. However, robotic intervention was associated with a higher rate of serious postoperative complications and the use of drains, as well as a longer average hospital stay.
