Robotic-assisted placement of a hepatic artery infusion catheter for regional chemotherapy.

Hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy can be of value to patients with metastatic liver disease from colorectal cancer. Arterial infusion therapy requires surgical placement of a catheter into the gastroduodenal artery connected to a subcutaneous infusion pump or port, a procedure involving major abdominal surgery. Placement of chemotherapy infusion catheters by conventional laparoscopic techniques has been described, but is a technically challenging procedure. The purpose of this report is to introduce a new, minimally invasive approach for hepatic artery catheter placement using the DaVinci robotic system with the potential to minimize surgical trauma, pain, and hospital stay, and to render this minimal access procedure more feasible and widely applicable.