A comparative study on perioperative outcomes between robotic versus laparoscopic D2 total gastrectomy

•As far as we are concerned, this is first prospective cohort study between robotic total gastrectomy (RTG) and laparoscopic total gastrectomy (LTG) for locally advanced gastric cancer.•Our study is the first to use multiple amylase markers (serum amylase, serum starch isozyme, ascites amylase and ascites starch isozyme) as quantitative indicators in the comparison of pancreatic trauma, and the results verified that robotic surgery led to less trauma to the pancreas.•In our study, we found that there was no significant difference in the total operative time between RTG and LTG, the results of this differ from those of previous studies. At the same time, RTG was associated with a lower incidence of pneumonia, and more retrieved lymph nodes.