AbstractBackgroundThe purpose of this study was to analyze all relevant comparative studies comparing robot‐assisted minimally invasive thymectomy (RATS) and video‐assisted thoracic surgery thymectomy (VATS) in terms of surgical and short‐term outcomes.MethodsA systematic search for articles describing robot‐assisted and video‐assisted thymectomy and addressing surgical outcomes, operation time, length of hospitalization, intra‐operative blood loss, conversion to sternotomy and post‐operative complications was performed using the medical databases.ResultsOf the 478 studies from preliminary screening, five articles were included. By pooling these studies, we found no significant differences between the RATS and VATS (odds ratio 1.24 (95% CI 0.51, 3.03; p = 0.63)).There were no significant differences in comparison of conversion rates, operation time (26.29 min (95% CI –2.57, 55.35; p = 0.07)) and length of hospitalization (–1.58 days (95% CI –4.78, 1.62; p = 0.33)). There was a slightly higher blood loss in the RATS group.ConclusionOur meta‐analysis did not detect any statistically significant differences in surgery outcomes between the two groups.