Short-term outcome after robot-assisted hiatal hernia and anti-reflux surgery—is there a benefit for the patient?

The robotic system was introduced to overcome the technical limitations of conventional laparoscopy. For complex oncological operations, it appears to offer further advantages. With regard to hiatal hernia repair, its role has yet to be determined. All consecutive patients who received elective laparoscopic or robot-assisted hiatal hernia repair at a single institution between January 2016 and July 2020 were retrospectively evaluated. We compared both techniques with particular focus on their short-term outcome. A propensity score-matched comparison considering clinical and surgical covariates was also performed between the two groups. 140 patients were included, and 55 (39.3%) underwent a robot-assisted procedure. The baseline demographics and the frequency of previous abdominal operations were comparable for both groups. The size of the hiatal hernia did not differ significantly between the groups (p = 0.06). The mean operative time was significantly longer for the robot-assisted procedure (149 vs. 125 min; p