Ivanesa Pardo, MD, Patricia Eichhorn, MD, Brian Binetti, MD, Tejinder Singh, MD
Albany Medical College
INTRODUCTION: Single incision surgery has developed a significant interest from both surgeons and patients in the recent past. In 2011 Intuitive Surgical® released Single-Site robotic instrumentation for use, and this was followed by its rapid adoption to perform cholecystectomy. Safety and feasibility studies demonstrate comparable results with improved operative time and greater ease of performance. The outcomes of Robotic Assisted Single Incision Cholecystectomy (RASIC) in the US have not been fully defined yet. The evaluation on RASIC will have an impact on the utilization of this technology and thus we aimed to describe our short term results with this technique.
METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Between January and June 2012, 16 patients underwent Robotic Assisted Single Incision Cholecystectomy at Albany Medical Center, New York. We performed a retrospective chart review under institutional review board approval. Patient’s demographics and 90 day outcomes were evaluated. Patients were followed at 2 weeks and 3 months from surgery.
RESULTS: There were 16 patients, 11 females (69%), age ranged between 25-69 years old. Preoperative diagnosis included biliary dyskinesia (38%), symptomatic cholelithiasis (56%) and gallbladder polyp (6%). Twelve patients (75%) had a preoperative diagnosis of umbilical hernia. Average total OR time was 75 min (42-110 min). Average docking time was 7 min (3-24 min). Average console time was 31 min (14-42 min). There were no conversions to open or need for additional ports. All patients were followed at 2 weeks and 14 (88%) at three months. Three patients presented with wound erythema (19%) within the first postoperative week. These patients were treated empirically with antibiotic therapy, and required no drainage procedure. There was no mortality.
CONCLUSIONS: Our short term results demonstrate that Robotic Assisted Single Incision Cholecystectomy can be performed safely with a low morbidity and no mortality. Patient’s expressed satisfaction with their outcomes. We had three patients with wound erythema that did not escalate to wound infection. Longer follow up is needed to determine long term results, specially the incidence of incisional hernia.
Session: Poster Presentation
Program Number: P647