• Zhengjun Qiu, Jing Sun, Ying Pu, Tao Jiang, Jun Cao, and Weidong Wu.
• Department of General Surgery, Shanghai Jiaotong University Affiliated First People's Hospital, 100 Haining Road, Shanghai, 200080, People's Republic of China. qiuwryb@online.sh.cn
• World J Surg. 2011 Sep 1;35(9):2092-101.

BackgroundTransumbilical single incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS) is a new laparoscopic procedure in which only one transumbilical incision is made, demonstrated as a scarless procedure. Here we report a single-center preliminary experience of transumbilical single incision laparoscopic cholecystectomy (SILC) in the treatment of benign gallbladder diseases, defining a single surgeon's learning curve.MethodsA total of 80 patients underwent SILC successfully by a single experienced laparoscopic surgeon. The operation was performed following the routine LC procedure. Then the perioperative demographics were recorded and the operative time was used to define the learning curve.ResultsThe study group included 27 male and 53 female patients with gallstones (56 cases), cholesterol polyps (16 cases), an adenomatous polyp (3 cases), adenomyomatosis (1 case), or complex diseases (4 cases), and all consented to undergo SILC. No patient was converted to normal LC or open surgery. There were no perioperative port-related or surgical complications. The average operative time was 46.9 ± 14.6 min. The average postoperative hospital stay was 1.8 ± 1.3 days. The learning curve of the SILC procedures for this series of selected patients confirmed that SILC is a feasible, safe, and effective approach to the treatment of benign gallbladder diseases.ConclusionsFor experienced laparoscopic surgeons, SILC is an easy and safe procedure. Patients benefit from milder pain, a lower incidence of port-related complications, better cosmesis, and fast recovery. The SILC procedure may become another option for the treatment of benign gallbladder diseases for selected patients.

31 keywords...

hide…