Robotic-assisted thoracic surgery in Brazil, a review of the literature and our current experience

Robotic surgery has become ever so popular as da Vinci surgical robots are being successfully implemented all around the world. With its firsts uses in thoracic surgery being described over a decade ago, robotic-assisted thoracic surgery (RATS) is being routinely performed in developed countries, but only in the past few years this technology has reached developing countries such as Brazil. Despite the late onset of RATS in Brazil, we believe the method has long ways to go as the expansion of robotic platforms around the country is increasing. Here we review the literature regarding the initial published data with the method in Brazilian hospitals and present our preliminary results as we acquired a more mature experience with the technique.