Objective: To investigate the oncological and functional efficacy and safety of transoral robotic surgery (TORS) in the treatment of oropharyngeal carcinoma. Methods: Twenty-six patients with oropharyngeal cancer were enrolled who underwent TORS at Beijing United Hospital from June 1, 2017 to December 31, 2020. Among them, 22 patients were males and 4 were females, aged 39 to 76 years old. T1-2 patients accounted for 88.5% (23/26). Clinicopathological data including the time of removal of gastric and endotracheal tube were collected. The SPSS software package was used for survival analysis, and the overall survival rate and disease-free survival rate were calculated. Results: All the 26 patients with oropharyngeal cancer received TORS without conversion to open surgery, and 20 of them underwent simultaneous cervical lymph node dissection. TORS operation time ranged from 65 to 360 minutes with an average of 215 minutes. Intraoperative blood loss ranged from 5 to 600 ml with an average of 70 ml. Four patients (15.4%) underwent tracheotomy, of whom 3 patients had the removals of tracheal tubes within 1 month after surgery and 1 case remained to wear a tube by the end of follow-up. Twelve patients (46.2%) underwent gastric tube implantation, among them, 11 patients had removals of gastric tubes within 1 month after surgery and 1 patient died of oropharyngeal hemorrhage 13 days after operation. One patient (3.8%) had a positive surgical margin and others had pathologically negative surgical margins. Sixteen patients (61.5%) received postoperative radiotherapy, of whom 11 patients (42.3%) received platinum-based concurrent chemotherapy. The median follow-up time was 21.5 months (0.4 to 45 months). The overall survival and the disease-free survival rates were 83.0% and 75.8%, respectively. Conclusion: The application of TORS in treatment of oropharyngeal cancer can achieve good oncological and functional outcomes in selected patients.
Adult ; Aged ; Carcinoma/surgery* ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Margins of Excision ; Middle Aged ; Neck Dissection ; Oropharyngeal Neoplasms/surgery* ; Robotic Surgical Procedures ; Treatment Outcome

Objective:To explore the feasibility of retroauricular robotic thyroidectomy and introduce the experience and lessons.Methods:From May 2018 to December 2018, 5 consecutive cases underwent gasless retroauricular robotic thyroidectomy by using Davinci Si system at Beijing United Family Hospital, including 1 male and 4 females, aged from 18 to 37 years old. And they were retrospectively reviewed and analyzed. Among them, one case was a recurrence of cervical lympy nodes after total thyroidectomy for thyroid cancer.Results:Among 5 patients (mean age 32.4 years, mean tumor size 1.3 cm), one patient underwent unilateral thyroid lobectomies, 3 patients did total thyroidectomy and 4 patients did neck dissection. All patients had papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTC). The average time for unilateral retroauricular robotic thyroidectomy was 375 min. Intraoperative conversion to open surgery happened in one patient. Postoperative vocal cord paralysis and hypocalcemia developed in one of the patients.Conclusion:Retroauricular robotic thyroidectomy is feasible for selected patients and would be a potential alternative approach in remote-access approaches for thyroid surgery.