Multi-institutional surgical outcomes of robotic single-port surgery: a Korean experience

Background: The da Vinci single-port system (SPS) has been applied in several fields of surgery; however, only a few studies have reported its applications in general thoracic surgery. This retrospective study aimed to investigate the multi-institutional experiences of applications of SPS in Korea.
Methods: The surgical outcomes of three institutions in Korea were collected and retrospectively reviewed.
Results: A total of 39 surgeries were performed using SPS without conversion to multiport surgery. The patients included 16 males, and the mean age was 54.2±12.4 years. The most common pathological diagnoses were thymoma (18 cases) and benign cystic lesions (10 cases). The approach used for SPS was subxiphoid, subcostal, and intercostal in 26, 10, and 3 cases, respectively. All patients underwent the surgeries without postoperative complications. The median operation time and peak pain score were 121.4±45.4 min and 3.1±1.1. The median duration of in situ chest tube and hospital stay was 1.3±0.6 and 2.9±1.2 days, respectively.
Conclusions: The application of SPS for general thoracic surgery was safe and feasible, whereas its applications remain limited to simple cases. To enable the widespread use of SPS surgery, alleviation of cost-related problems and technical improvement of SPS for complex procedures are required.