Robotic Single-Port Hernia Surgery

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Since the introduction of single-incision laparoscopic surgery in 2009, an increasing number of surgical procedures including hernia repair are being performed using this technique. However, its large-scale adoption awaits results of prospective randomized controlled studies confirming its potential benefits. Parallel with single-port surgery development, the issue of the chronic lack of good camera assistants is being addressed by the robotic Freehand® camera controller, which has the potential to replace camera assistants in a large percentage of routine laparoscopic surgery. Although the robotic Freehand has been used in certain operations in urology and gynecology, there have been no published reports in robotic (single-port) hernia surgery. METHODS This study reports the first case and a series of 16 patients who underwent robotic single-port total extraperitoneal inguinal hernia repair compared to 16 consecutive cases of conventional single-port inguinal hernia repair. Patients were matched for age, sex, body mass index, American Society of Anesthesiologists classification, and types of hernia. RESULTS Although operation time was comparable in both, the time wasted for scope cleaning was 8.5 minutes for conventional compared to 1.5 minutes for robotic surgery. CONCLUSION Robotic single-port inguinal hernia repair is feasible and efficient. This represents a further milestone in laparoscopic surgery.