Single port laparoscopic surgery for patients with complex and recurrent Crohn's disease

• Published in: Journal of Crohn's and colitis Vol. 8; no. 9; pp. 1055 - 1061
• Main Authors: Moftah, Mohamed, Nazour, Fady, Cunningham, Melanie, Cahill, Ronan A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier B.V 01.09.2014
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Crohn Disease - diagnosis; Crohn Disease - surgery; Crohn's disease; Equipment Design; Female; Humans; Ileocolic resection; Inflammatory bowel disease; Laparoscopes; Laparoscopy - methods; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Middle Aged; Minimal access surgery; Single incision laparoscopy; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; Treatment Outcome; Young Adult; Inflammatory bowel disease; Minimal access surgery; Single incision laparoscopy; Crohn's disease; Ileocolic resection
• DOI: 10.1016/j.crohns.2014.02.003
• ISSN: 1873-9946

Single port laparoscopic surgery (SPLS) is a modified access technique allowing grouping of instruments at a single parietal site. It is intuitively appealing specifically for patients with Crohn's disease (CD) as its minimal invasiveness favors cosmesis and facilitates any future (re)operation. Consecutive patients presenting either electively or urgently for resectional surgery for CD over a 36month period were considered for SPLS using, by preference, a transumbilical ‘Surgical Glove Port’. Standard, straight laparoscopic instrumentation was used without additional resources. Of 33 consecutive, unselected patients, 28 (92%) had their procedure initiated by SPLS including those needing urgent intervention (n=15) and those with prior abdominal operation (n=8), obstruction (n=7), mass (n=6), fistula (n=6) and/or abscess (n=4). The median (range) age and BMI of the patients were 31 (17–69) years and 21.3 (18.6–28) kg/m2 respectively. 31 had ileocolonic resection (6 with recurrent disease) while two underwent segmental colectomy. No-one suffered intraoperative or anastomotic complication. Both conversion (15%) and postoperative complication (13 Clavian–Dindo complications — I: 8; II: 2; IIIa: 3) rates were predominantly reflective of patient and disease complexity. Median (range) postoperative day of discharge was 6 (3–33) overall and 5 (3–18) in those completed by SPLS. There was one early readmission (for infectiouscolitis) and median follow-up is now 21months. Complex and recurrent Crohn's resections can be performed by SPLS in the majority of patients presenting elective or urgently for surgery. The Surgical Glove Port performs capably and, by minimizing cost, can facilitate broad embrace of this approach.