Editorial comment on: a comparison of postoperative complications in open versus robotic cystectomy.

摘要

The surgeon in this series is to be congratulated on his skills, both in open and robotic surgery [1], However, single-surgeon series involving two or more competing techniques always raise the question of whether the surgeon has more experience with or a preference for a certain technique. Since this series is not a randomized study, the preference for or comfort with open or robotic surgery may lead to a selection bias (for both urologists and patients) that cannot be excluded simply by the factors listed under patient demographics in Table 2. Such a bias can derive, for example, from the fact that well-suited patients are referred to the institution because of the excellent results in robotic surgery, whereas those patients undergoing open cystectomy were more difficult cases that the referring or operating urologists did not think were ideal.