Abstract Aims The objective of this article is to evaluate the effectiveness of robotic versus laparoscopic repair of the inguinal. Methods Standard medical literature was searched and relevant randomized, controlled trials (RCT) comparing robotic versus laparoscopic inguinal hernia repairs were retrieved. The data was analyzed on Review Manager 5.4 statistical Software of the Cochrane Collaboration by using random effect model analysis. Results A total of 3 RCTs on 239 adult patients undergoing either robotic or laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair were found suitable for analysis. In the random effect model analysis, laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair was associated with a reduced cost compared to robotic repair standardized mean difference (SMD) 0.78; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.37, 1.18, z = 3.77, p = 0.0002). Statistically there was no significant difference in the duration of operation [SMD: 1.16; 95%, CI -1.57, 3.89, z = 0.83, p = 0.41), 0–12-hour postoperative pain SMD: 0.00; 95% CI -0.41, 0.41, z = 0.00, P = 1.00) score, 7-day postoperative pain scores [SMD: 0.17; 95% CI -0.22, 0.56, z = 0.86, P = 0.39) and in postoperative complications [risk ratio: 1.29; CI 0.50, 3.28, z = 0.53, P = 0.60 between robotic versus laparoscopic group in patients undergoing inguinal hernia repair. Conclusions Laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair is more cost effective compared to robotic repair but due to the paucity of the RCTs available, these findings need validation by the results of a major high quality multicentre RCT.
Samkutty et al. (Fri,) studied this question.