World Largest Single Surgeon’s Experience of Robotic Resection of Pulmonary and Bronchial Carcinoid Tumors

Background: Carcinoid tumors of the lung/bronchus are relatively rare. Methods: This is a consecutive (non-selected) series from a validated prospective database of patients from one surgeon. Results: From July, 1996 to March 2026 one thoracic surgeon (RJC) performed 19,425 operations and 243 patients (1.3%) had a carcinoid tumor. Starting February 2009, we started robotic surgery and have performed 3,100 robotic operations as of March 2026, of which 134 (4.3%) patients had a carcinoid tumor resected robotically. Eighty-one patients (60%) underwent lobectomy, 17 (13%) had a sleeve resection of the airway and 9 (7%) had bi-lobectomy. The median operative time was 118 minutes and the median actual blood loss of 20 mL (10 – 50). There were no major intraoperative complications, and no patients required blood transfusion or conversion to open thoracotomy. Median length of stay was one day and 83% of patients went home on post-operative day one. All patients had an R0 resection. The median lymph node yield was 27. There was one 30- and 90-day mortality (0.7%). Five-year overall survival was 95%, with median follow-up of 80 months. Patient and family satisfaction was 98%. Conclusion: This is the largest single surgeon’s experience performing robotic resection for pulmonary carcinoid tumors. It shows that a robotic platform offers outstanding short and long-term outcomes, even for complex operations such as sleeve resection and bi-lobectomy. Patients and their families also enjoy an outstanding experience with high satisfaction that requires only one night stay in the hospital.