Meta-analytic comparison of robotic and transoral laser surgical procedures in supraglottic carcinoma

Objective. To assess published reports of oncological surgical success rates in patients who
underwent transoral laser supraglottic surgery and robotic surgery for supraglottic cancer.
Methods. A systematic review of the literature was conducted and a meta-analysis of published data was performed. PubMed, Sage, Medline and Cochrane data sources were investigated. Overall survival rates, disease-specific survival rates, additional treatments and
recurrence rates were investigated to determine the success of the surgical procedures.
Results. The meta-analysis included 24 studies; 1617 studies were excluded. There were no
statistically significant differences between the transoral laser supraglottic surgery and transoral robotic supraglottic surgery groups in terms of overall survival (77.0 per cent and 82.4 per
cent respectively) and disease-specific survival (75.8 per cent and 87.0 per cent respectively).
There was recurrence in 164 out of 832 patients (19.7 per cent) in the transoral laser supraglottic surgery group and in only 6 out of 66 patients (9 per cent) in the transoral robotic
supraglottic surgery group.
Conclusion. Transoral laser surgery and robotic surgery appear to have comparable and
acceptable oncological success rates