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Laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair with a joystick-guided robotic scope holder (Soloassist II®): retrospective comparative study with human assistant

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical usefulness of a joystick-guided robotic scope holder (Soloassist II®) in laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair.

Methods

Among 182 inguinal hernia patients treated by laparoscopic transabdominal preperitoneal repair, 82 cases were completed with a human scope assistant, while Soloassist was used in 100 cases. We retrospectively compared perioperative results of Soloassist group and human scope assistant group. In 139 unilateral cases, we also used logistic regression of perioperative factors for the propensity score calculation to balance the bias.

Results

All operations with Soloassist were carried out laparoscopically as solo-surgery without any system-specific complications. A statistically significant decrease in operation time was observed in Soloassist group compared with human assistant group (93.6 vs 85.9 min, p = 0.05). There was no prolongation of preoperative time or difference in the amount of intraoperative blood loss. Operation time was also significantly shorter in Soloassist group, when analyzing unilateral cases (85.5 vs 76.3 min, p = 0.02) and bilateral cases (126.9 vs 111.8 min, p = 0.01), independently. However, after propensity score matching in unilateral cases, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups (83.8 vs 77.2 min, p = 0.23).

Conclusions

The feasibility of Soloassist in laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair was demonstrated with no adverse device-related events. All surgeries could be completed as solo-surgery, while no additional time for preoperative setting was required. The mean operation time tends to be shorter in Soloassist group compared with human assistant group. Soloassist could be an effective device in laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cancer Treatment Support Center, Okayama City Hospital, 1-20-3 Kitanagase-omotemachi, Kita-ku, Okayama, Okayama, 700-8557, Japan

    Yasushi Ohmura

  2. Department of Surgery, Okayama City Hospital, 1-20-3 Kitanagase-omotemachi, Kita-ku, Okayama, Okayama, 700-8557, Japan

    Yasushi Ohmura, Hiromitsu Suzuki, Kazutoshi Kotani & Atsushi Teramoto

  3. Department of Surgery, Yakage Hospital, 2695 Yakage, Yakage-chou, Oda, Okayama, 714-1201, Japan

    Hiromitsu Suzuki

  4. Department of Surgery, Kasaoka Daiichi Hospital, 1945 Yokoshima, Kasaoka, Okayama, 714-0043, Japan

    Kazutoshi Kotani

Authors
  1. Yasushi Ohmura
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  2. Hiromitsu Suzuki
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  3. Kazutoshi Kotani
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  4. Atsushi Teramoto
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Contributions

Study conception and design, Yasushi Ohmura, Hiromitsu Suzuki, Kazutoshi Kotani, Atsushi Teramoto; acquisition of data, Yasushi Ohmura, Hiromitsu Suzuki; analysis and interpretation of data, Yasushi Ohmura, Hiromitsu Suzuki; drafting of manuscript, Yasushi Ohmura.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yasushi Ohmura.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical statement

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was indeed obtained from all individual participant included in the study.

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Ohmura, Y., Suzuki, H., Kotani, K. et al. Laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair with a joystick-guided robotic scope holder (Soloassist II®): retrospective comparative study with human assistant. Langenbecks Arch Surg 404, 495–503 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00423-019-01793-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00423-019-01793-y

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