title: [A meta-analysis on the outcomes and potential benefits of hybrid robotic technique in rectal cancer surgery].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the efficacy and potential benefits of hybrid robotic technique in rectal cancer surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  A meta-analysis on the literatures about the hybrid robotic proctectomy from Medline(PubMed), Cochrane, EMBASE, OVID, CNKI, Wanfang database, manually retrieved articles between January 2007 and January 2013 was performed by RevMan 5.2.
  
  
  RESULTS
  According to Newcastle-Ottawa Scale, 7 articles were screened. A total of 884 cases (430 robotic cases and 454 laparoscopic cases) were included. Compared to the laparoscopic group, the conversion rate and intraoperative blood loss was reduced and operation time was longer in the robotic group. The number of lymph node harvested, time to first flatus, length of hospital stay and postoperative complication morbidity were not significantly different between the two groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Potential benefits of robotic surgery include lower conversion rate and less blood loss, however, present evidence supporting the robotic benefits is still limited.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing University Medical School, Nanjing 210008, China. guan-wx@163.com.
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Wenxian
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Guan
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy; D012004:Rectal Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D065287:Robotic Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome