Papers
58
Total Citations
2,017
H-Index
21
About
Felix Nickel is a surgeon-scientist whose research sits at the intersection of minimally invasive surgery, surgical robotics, and artificial intelligence-driven operative guidance. Based at a leading academic surgical center, Nickel has made landmark contributions to pancreatic surgery by rigorously evaluating whether laparoscopic and robotic approaches can match or surpass traditional open techniques. His systematic review on laparoscopic versus open pancreaticoduodenectomy (271 citations) helped clarify the evidence base at a time when adoption was outpacing data, while his 2024 EUROPA randomized controlled trial directly tested robotic partial pancreatoduodenectomy against the gold-standard open procedure — one of the first RCTs of its kind. Nickel has also advanced our understanding of how surgeons acquire complex operative skills, publishing influential work on learning curves across open, laparoscopic, and robotic platforms (118 citations). Beyond the operating room, he has pushed surgical innovation into the digital domain, contributing to machine learning-based workflow analysis, hyperspectral organ segmentation, and virtual reality simulation for robotic surgery training. With over 1,150 citations across his most prominent publications alone, Nickel's work is shaping how the next generation of surgeons will be trained, assessed, and technologically supported.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Laparoscopic Versus Open Pancreaticoduodenectomy271 citations · 2019
- 2Robotic <i>versus</i> laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy: multicentre analysis121 citations · 2021
- 3Learning Curves in Open, Laparoscopic, and Robotic Pancreatic Surgery118 citations · 2022
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- 10Robotic Distal Pancreatectomy76 citations · 2022