World's Largest Single-Surgeon Experience in Robotic Resection of Pulmonary and Bronchial Carcinoid Tumors.

Carcinoid tumors of the lung and bronchus are relatively rare. This is a consecutive (non-selected) series from a validated prospective database of patients from one surgeon (RJC). From July 1996 to March 2026 one thoracic surgeon (RJC) performed 19,425 operations and 243 patients (1.3%) had a carcinoid tumor. In February 2009 we started performing 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 min and the median actual blood loss was 20 mL (range 10–50 mL). 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 on frozen. The median lymph node yield was 27, median 5 N2 and 3N1 stations. There was one 30- and 90-day mortality (0.7%) from an unexplained arrythmia while home. Five-year overall survival was 95%, with median follow-up of 80 months. Patient and family satisfaction was 98%. This is the world’s largest single-surgeon experience of robotic resection for pulmonary carcinoid tumors. It demonstrates 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 a one night stay in the hospital.