Epoch-making Treatment with Transoral Robotic Surgery for Oropharyngeal Carcinoma

Transoral Robotic Surgery (TORS) was reported as being one of the most minimally invasive surgery (MIS) procedures available by the University of Pennsylvania in 2005. TORS has increasingly been employed in the treatment of oropharyngeal carcinoma throughout the world on account of the various advantages including superior surgical manipulation of the oropharyngeal tissue, excellent visualization and accurate resection. We investigated 16 cases relating to TORS and oropharyngeal carcinoma from a total of 78 English academic documents. We analyzed data from 595 patients who were treated with TORS from 2005 to 2013. Patient numbers of T1, T2, T3 and T4 were 243, 296, 38 and 18, respectively. The number of N0, N1, N2 and N3 were 168, 98,307 and 22, respectively. The mean hospital stay time was 5.3 days. In regard to margin status, the margin free rate was 93.1%. The percutaneous gastrostomy (PEG) tube dependency rate was 3.8%. Loco-regional recurrences and distant metastasis were reported at 3.0% and 2.8%, respectively. The two year overall survival rate was 80.6-100%, and 2 year disease free survival rate was 92-100%. We conclude that TORS is a safe and advantageous procedure for treating oropharyngeal carcinoma.