Learning Curve of Robotic Pancreatoduodenectomy for Surgeons With Extensive Laparoscopic Pancreatoduodenectomy Experience

With the development of robotic surgery systems, their unique advantages over traditional laparoscopic surgery systems, such as a three-dimensional 10-fold magnified view, seven degrees of freedom for flexible wrist movements, tremor filtering, and good ergonomic design, have significantly improved the precision and quality of surgery. The literature has reported that, compared with the laparoscopic surgery system, the robotic surgery system can reduce intraoperative blood loss and the conversion rate to laparotomy, in addition to the dissection of more lymph nodes. Therefore, robotic surgery has become increasingly popular. As the economy develops and surgeons gain more experience in LPD, many are shifting their focus to robotic pancreatoduodenectomy after mastering laparoscopic techniques. There are a few reports on the RPD learning curve for surgeons with extensive experience in LPD. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the number of cases required for such surgeons to overcome the learning curve for RPD and to analyze the impact of different phases of the learning curve on perioperative outcomes.