The MicroHand S robotic-assisted versus Da Vinci robotic-assisted radical resection for patients with sigmoid colon cancer: a single-center retrospective study

Background Sigmoid colon cancer is a lethal disease and has a strong indication for surgery. Robotic-assisted surgery is one of the promising alternative treatment for this disease. Nowadays, the MicroHand S surgical system and the Da Vinci surgical system have been assembled in China. However, there is still no report to study the therapeutic effects of the two robotic-assisted surgical systems. Thus, the purpose of this study was to compare clinical and economic outcomes of patients with sigmoid colon cancer undergoing robot-assisted radical surgery via The MicroHand S or Da Vinci surgical system. Methods The clinical data of 45 patients with sigmoid colon cancer undergoing the MicroHand S or Da Vinci robotic-assisted surgery at The Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University from January 2017 to January 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. Results Twenty-one patients received MicroHand S robotic-assisted radical surgery and 24 patients received Da Vinci robot-assisted radical surgery. No significant differences were observed in terms of operation time, number of lymph node harvested, blood loss, intestinal exhaust time, time of oral feeding resumption, volume of abdominal cavity 24-h drainage, hospital stay, complication and rate of conversion, removal time of drainage tube and catheter between MicroHand S and Da Vinci group. However, the MicroHand S group had significantly lower hospitalization costs (P = 0.002) and shorter time to get out of bed after surgery (P = 0.04). In addition, no recurrence and metastases were observed in both groups during the follow-up. Conclusions In patients with sigmoid colon cancer, the Da Vinci surgical system did not show obvious clinical advantages compared to the MicroHand S surgical system in surgical outcomes. However, the MicroHand S surgical platform showed advantages in terms of the hospitalization costs and length of postoperative bedtime. The outcome of this study will probably result in a shift to the MicroHand S surgical system as treatment preference in China.