Ishihara, Soichiro
Kiyomatsu, Tomomichi
Kawai, Kazushige
Tanaka, Toshiaki
Hata, Keisuke
Kazama, Shinsuke
Sunami, Eiji
Nozawa, Hiroaki
Watanabe, Toshiaki
Article History
Accepted: 9 April 2018
First Online: 23 April 2018
Compliance with ethical standards
: The study protocol was approved by the local ethics committees of the University of Tokyo [reference number: 3252-(1)], and informed consent was obtained from all the patients. The research was conducted in accordance with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.
: Toshiaki Watanabe received lecture fees from Intuitive Surgical, Covidien, Olympus, and Johnson & Johnson. The remaining authors declare no conflicts of interest in association with the present study.