EQ-5D studies in robotic surgery: a mini-review

Abstract

EQ-5D is a self-reported questionnaire to assess and value health. This measurement tool is extensively used in clinical trials, and it is the most often used source to calculate health gains expressed as Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALY) in health economic evaluations. Given the increasing advances and spread of robot-assisted surgery, we aimed to review the available evidence for robotic surgery studies with EQ-5D outcomes. A systematic review was performed in PubMed database (as of July 2022). Despite the abundancy of publications in robotic surgery, only 15 clinical and 5 cost-utility studies were found that reported EQ-5D outcomes. Gynecology and orthopedics were the most commonly studied areas. Incomplete and inadequate reporting of EQ-5D data was found in the great majority of the publications. We encourage care providers, technology developers, clinical research organizations in the field to consider the EQ-5D as a patient reported outcome in robotic surgery trials and draw attention to the reporting standards.