Single-incision laparoscopic ventral hernia repair with suprapubic incision

Although natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery promises truly scarless surgery, this has not progressed beyond the experimental setting and a few clinical cases in the field of ventral hernia repair. This is mainly because of the problem of sterilizing natural orifices, which prevents the use of any prosthetic material because of unacceptable risks of infection. Single-incision laparoscopic ventral hernia repair has gained more wide-spread acceptance by specialized hernia centers. Even so, there is a special subset of patients who are young and/or scar conscious and find any visible scar unacceptable. This study illustrates an innovative way of performing single-incision laparoscopic ventral hernia repair by a transverse suprapubic incision below the pubic hair/bikini line in 2 young male patients who had both umbilical and epigastric hernias as well as attenuated linea alba in the upper abdomen.

Both patients underwent successful laparoscopic repair, and both were highly satisfied with the procedure, which produced no visible scars on their abdomen.

Willingness to adopt new innovative procedures, such as single-incision laparoscopic surgery, has allowed modification of the incision site to produce invisible scars and hence become highly attractive to the young and scar-phobic segment of the population.