Safety and feasibility of robotic-assisted laparoscopic lateral lymph node dissection

It is a great pleasure and honor to comment on the article titled “Selective lateral pelvic lymph node dissection: a comparative study of the robotic versus laparoscopic approach” by Kim et al. in the Surgical Endoscopy (1). Lateral lymph node dissection (LLD) for rectal cancer is a technically difficult procedure. This study aimed to compare the short-term outcomes and the initial oncological outcomes between the robotic-assisted laparoscopic LLD (RALLD) and the conventional laparoscopic LLD (CLLLD) in patients with rectal cancer. In detail, 50 and 35 patients who underwent RALLD and CLLLD with total mesorectal excision (TME) between 2006 and 2014 were retrospectively compared.