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Matto et al. Mini-invasive Surg. 2025;9:19 Mini-invasive Surgery
DOI: 10.20517/2574-1225.2025.51

Technical Note Open Access

Robotic-assisted minimally invasive

esophagectomy: experience at the University of
Pittsburgh Medical Center

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Marissa A. Matto 1 , Evan T. Alicuben , Samuel Luketich , Sangmin Kim , Nicholas Baker , Inderpal S.
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Sarkaria , James D. Luketich 1
1
Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA 15232, USA.
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Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, West Virginia University Medicine, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA.
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Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA.
Correspondence to: Dr. Marissa A. Matto, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 5200
Centre Avenue, Suite 715, Pittsburgh, PA 15232, USA. E-mail: mattom@upmc.edu
How to cite this article: Matto MA, Alicuben ET, Luketich S, Kim S, Baker N, Sarkaria IS, Luketich JD. Robotic-assisted minimally
invasive esophagectomy: experience at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Mini-invasive Surg. 2025;9:19. https://dx.doi.
org/10.20517/2574-1225.2025.51
Received: 16 Apr 2025 First Decision: 9 Jun 2025 Revised: 13 Jun 2025 Accepted: 17 Jun 2025 Published: 25 Jun 2025
Academic Editor: Giulio Belli Copy Editor: Pei-Yun Wang Production Editor: Pei-Yun Wang

Abstract
Robotic-assisted minimally invasive esophagectomy (RAMIE) is increasingly used in the treatment of resectable
esophageal cancer. This is a report on the current technique of RAMIE at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
(UPMC), including a summary of early data on 65 patient outcomes reported in an ongoing esophageal cancer
database. To date, we have performed over 200 cases of RAMIE at UPMC from September 2013 to July 2024, and
the analysis of the data will be presented soon. The practice has evolved into a near-total RAMIE experience for
several surgeons, while others remain in a learning curve. It is our experience that the initial performance of RAMIE
requires strong mentoring by an experienced robotic surgeon. However, at this time, we are unable to provide
guidelines for specific case numbers to achieve proficiency. As more patients with esophageal cancer are treated
with robotic-assisted minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) at UPMC, data have shown that patient outcomes
are not compromised compared with that of traditional MIE. In fact, RAMIE may demonstrate superiority in the
median number of lymph nodes harvested, which could contribute to increased accuracy in pathologic staging. This
approach has developed a strong surgeon preference for both new graduates and experienced MIE surgeons alike.
Keywords: RAMIE, robotic esophagectomy, minimally invasive esophagectomy

© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as
long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and
indicate if changes were made.

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