Comparative Analysis of Robotic Single-Port Versus Robotic Multi-Port Transabdominal Preperitoneal Inguinal Hernia Surgery in South Korea

Purpose: Inguinal hernia is a common abdominal abnormality with a lifetime incidence of approximately 25% in men and requires surgical treatment.Laparoscopic herniorrhaphy was first performed for inguinal hernia repair in the 1990s.Recently, robotic herniorrhaphy has been widely used.Robotic single-port herniorrhaphy (SPH) is also now performed in some institutions.Here, we report our initial experience with SPH. Materials and Methods:We analyzed the clinical data of 123 patients who underwent robotic inguinal herniorrhaphy at our hospital between November 2020 and June 2023.One hundred patients underwent robotic multi-port herniorrhaphy (MPH) using the Da Vinci Xi system, and 23 underwent robotic single-port transabdominal preperitoneal herniorrhaphy using the Da Vinci SP system.The same surgeon performed all hernia surgeries.Results: In the SPH group, the mean console time was 10 minutes longer than that in the MPH group (30.82±12.02vs. 41.52±13.08minutes, P=0.001).Compared to the MPH group, the length of hospital stay was shorter, and the visual analog scale score on the operation day was significantly lower in the SPH group (3.95±1.21 vs. 2.91±0.52,P<0.001).The morbidity and hernia recurrence incidences were not significantly different between the 2 groups.Conclusions: Robotic SPH is technically acceptable for surgeons with sufficient experience in robotic hernia surgery.However, further studies are needed, given that robotic SPH has not been widely performed.