Total Robotic Resection for Superior Sulcus Tumors: Technical Description and Case Series

Annuls of Thoracic Surgery

The surgical approach to superior sulcus tumors (SSTs) includes a radical en bloc resection of the chest wall near the thoracic inlet, upper lobectomy, and lymph node dissection after induction therapy.1 Several open surgical approaches to SST have been described, but the data for minimally invasive approaches are limited to hybrid operations with open chest wall resection.2 Robotic-assisted thoracic surgery (RATS) pulmonary resection has become popular during the last decade, and its application to simple and complex cases is promising.3 Robotic approaches to SST are reported in a few case reports,3-5 but they are also limited to hybrid approaches. We describe our technique and experience of total robotic resection of SST with video.