Robotic oncological surgery: our initial experience of 164 cases.

Minimal access surgery is an accepted modality for benign surgery. Despite the advantages of laparoscopy, its acceptance in oncology is slow. Robotic surgery is an emerging field with rapid acceptance because of the 3-dimensional image, dexterity of instruments and autonomy of camera control. We report here our experience of using the Da Vinci robot for various oncological procedures. We performed 164 oncological surgeries from November 2009 to June 2011. The surgeries performed included thoracic, colorectal, hepatobiliary, gynaecological and urological system. We could complete 163 cases robotically. We share our initial experience of robotic surgery in oncology with comparison with other series.