SynthesisSurgical endoscopy2025
Costs of robotic and laparoscopic bariatric surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Surgical endoscopy, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Laparoscopic Versus Robotic Adrenalectomy: A Randomized Clinical Trial.Annals of surgical oncology · 2026Trial
- Evaluating trends and outcomes between robotic and laparoscopic bariatric surgery in patients with BMI ≥ 60 kg/mSurgical endoscopy · 2026Article
- Assessing the adequacy of funding for robotic-surgery hospital stays: a focused cost analysis based on 1,722 procedures in a French university hospital.Journal of robotic surgery · 2026Article
- Methodological Considerations for Outcome Assessment in Robotic Sleeve Gastrectomy.Obesity surgery · 2025Article
- Robotic Bariatric Surgery Using da Vinci and Hugo™ RAS Systems: What You Should Know.Obesity surgery · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundBariatric surgery is currently the most effective approach to addressing severe obesity and reducing related health issues. Laparoscopy remains the standard technique, whereas robotic-assisted surgery is increasingly adopted, although its role in bariatric surgery remains debated. The main criticism concerns its higher costs and the lack of evidence demonstrating improved clinical outcomes compared to other treatment methods. We aimed to compare the costs of robotic-assisted and laparoscopic bariatric surgery through a systematic review and meta-analysis.
methodsFollowing PRISMA reporting guidelines, a literature search was conducted in PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Google Scholar for studies comparing robotic-assisted and laparoscopic bariatric surgery. The primary outcome was total hospital costs, with bias assessed using the Risk Of Bias In Non-randomized Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I) tool. Effect sizes were calculated with 95% confidence intervals, and an overall effect was estimated using a random-effects model.
resultsA total of 14 retrospective studies (293 articles screened) were included, with 1,414,357 patients (112,363 robotic; 1,301,994 laparoscopic). Total hospital costs favored laparoscopic surgery (SMD 0.721, 95%CI: 0.555-0.887, p < 0.001, absolute difference USD 3819). Operating room costs also favored laparoscopy (SMD 1.339, 95%CI 0.202-2.476, p = 0.021, absolute difference: USD 9746). Laparoscopy was associated with shorter operative time, while robotic surgery showed a slight advantage in hospital stay and complication rates. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were consistent with the main findings. The quality of evidence was rated as low due to potential biases.
conclusionsOur systematic review and meta-analysis provides the most current and robust evidence indicating that the robotic-assisted approach incurs significantly higher costs than the laparoscopic approach in bariatric surgery. This finding remained consistent across the overall analysis as well as in nearly all subgroup and sensitivity analyses. Randomized controlled trials are warranted to accurately evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the robotic approach in both primary and revisional bariatric procedures.
Indexed as
Identifiers
40259090What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.