Transumbilical single-port sleeve gastrectomy: initial experience and comparative study

Sleeve gastrectomy is gaining relevance in the surgical armamentarium against obesity. The transumbilical single port has proved to be an attractive and safe alternative for a variety of minimally invasive abdominal surgeries. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the initial results of a group of patients operated by single-port sleeve gastrectomy compared with a group operated by conventional laparoscopic technique.

We present a prospective cohort study of two groups of consecutive patients with body mass index (BMI) between 35 and 55 kg/m(2), with an indication of sleeve gastrectomy. In 20 patients, we used a transumbilical single-port (TUSP) technique; in 22 patients, we used the conventional laparoscopic (CL) technique. All surgeries were performed between June and December 2009 in the Gastrointestinal Surgery Department of Hospital Clínic, Barcelona. The same medical team, in a standardized fashion, carried out all surgeries.

There were no differences between groups in body mass index (BMI), age, sex, number and type of comorbidities, or history of previous abdominal surgery. Operative time (79.2 min) was significantly higher in the TUSP group (p = 0.002) than in the CL group (54.1 min). There were no conversions to open surgery in any of the patients operated upon via CL, but one conversion to laparoscopic surgery, requiring the addition of three trocars, in the TUSP group. There were no significant differences in morbidity or hospital stay between the groups. Percentage excess weight loss and excess BMI loss at 3 and 6 months, as indexes for improvement and resolution of comorbidities associated with obesity, showed that there were no significant differences between the groups.

Transumbilical single-port sleeve gastrectomy has proved to be safe, technically feasible, and reproducible, with results that are similar to those obtained with conventional laparoscopic surgery.