To assess the feasibility, safety and clinical application of robotic subcutaneous mastectomy.

Totally 10 patients who underwent robotic subcutaneous mastectomy in Jinan Military General Hospital from February 2014 to August 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. They included 8 patients with gynecomastia, 1 breast cancer and 1 recurrent multiple breast fibroadenoma. The following parameters were evaluated: operative time, postoperative discharge, conversion rate to open surgery, length of hospitalization, number of dissected lymph nodes and postoperative complications.

The minimal duration of one-side robotic surgery in this study was 114 min, indicating a very rapid learning curve. We successfully performed the robotic subcutaneous mastectomy in 10 cases (16 breasts). None converted to open surgery. The operative time was 114-336 min, mean 190 min. There were no major complications, including hematoma, seroma, skin or nipple-areola necrosis and infection. One patient had small blisters on the breast skin, which might be caused by ultrasound scalpel during operation and was resolved one week later without any specific treatment. In the follow-up of 0.5-18.0 months, no recurrence or tumor metastasis was observed.

The robotic subcutaneous mastectomy has the advantages of low incidence of postoperative complications, high safety, feasibility and patient satisfaction.