Robot-assisted hepatic mobilization and control of suprahepatic infradiaphragmatic inferior vena cava for level 3 vena caval thrombectomy: An IDEAL stage 0 study.

Robot-assisted level 1/2 inferior vena caval (IVC) thrombectomy techniques have been recently described for clinical use. Following the IDEAL recommendations on safe surgical innovation, we here describe a robotic approach for level 3 IVC thrombectomy in fresh frozen cadavers (IDEAL stage 0). In all cadavers (n = 3), hepatic mobilization with control of short hepatic veins, contralateral renal vein, infrarenal IVC and suprahepatic-infradiaphragmatic IVC could be achieved successfully, without converting to open surgery. Clinical feasibility of our technique remains to be tested.