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 with laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The analysis included almost 845,000 people (mean age 45.6 years; 64.9 percent women) from American patient databases for 2016–2021. Using pseudorandomization (selection according to the propensity score), one-to-one cohorts of more than 35,000 participants were formed who underwent robotic or laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The results of the analysis of their postoperative period were published in the journal JAMA Surgery.
The incidence of common bile duct injury was similar between the two types of procedures, with robotic intervention associated with higher rates of major postoperative complications and drain use, as well as a longer average length of hospital stay.