What does robotic right colectomy add to its laparoscopic counterpart?

The right colectomy is commonly performed for the malignant lesions of the ascending colon and the hepatic flexure. Many surgical approaches have been proposed to treat right-sided tumors; of those laparoscopic surgery (LS) has gained a worldwide acceptance by decreasing the surgical trauma compared to open technique. However, LS has some limitations (i.e., rigid instrumentation) and the surgical community sought to develop new minimally invasive techniques to aim the weaknesses of the laparoscopy. Robotic surgery has emerged in the early 2000s, which quickly gained popularity thanks to its endo-wristed instruments and increased dexterity. The advantages of the robotic surgery—especially on the right colectomy frontier, are more likely to be pronounced with the implementation of complete mesocolic excision (CME) technique, which follows the same principles of total mesorectal excision. Furthermore, robotic surgery may ease and promote intracorporeal anastomosis which is challenging to perform with the laparoscopic approach. Despite its advantages, prolonged operative time and increased hospital costs are the main drawbacks for the robotic surgery. In this review, we aimed to discuss the role of robotic surgery on right colectomy in light of the most recent literature.