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BackgroundLaparoscopic surgery changed the management of numerous surgical conditions. It was associated with many advantages over open surgery, such as decreased postoperative pain, faster recovery, shorter hospital stay and excellent cosmesis. Since two decades single-incision endoscopic surgery (SIES) was introduced to the surgical community. SIES could possibly result in even better postoperative outcomes than multi-port laparoscopic surgery, especially concerning cosmetic outcomes and pain. However, the single-incision surgical procedure is associated with quite some challenges.MethodsAn expert panel of surgeons has been selected and invited to participate in the preparation of the material for a consensus meeting on the topic SIES, which was held during the EAES congress in Frankfurt, June 16, 2017. The material presented during the consensus meeting was based on evidence identified through a systematic search of literature according to a pre-specified protocol. Three main topics with respect to SIES have been identified by the panel: (1) General, (2) Organ specific, (3) New development. Within each of these topics, subcategories have been defined. Evidence was graded according to the Oxford 2011 Levels of Evidence. Recommendations were made according to the GRADE criteria.ResultsIn general, there is a lack of high level evidence and a lack of long-term follow-up in the field of single-incision endoscopic surgery. In selected patients, the single-incision approach seems to be safe and effective in terms of perioperative morbidity. Satisfaction with cosmesis has been established to be the main advantage of the single-incision approach. Less pain after single-incision approach compared to conventional laparoscopy seems to be considered an advantage, although it has not been consistently demonstrated across studies.ConclusionsConsidering the increased direct costs (devices, instruments and operating time) of the SIES procedure and the prolonged learning curve, wider acceptance of the procedure should be supported only after demonstration of clear benefits.

The liver donor pool can be increased if liver grafts are accepted without an age limit but in good condition (hemodynamic stability, short intensive care unit stay, good liver function, soft consistency, cold ischemia time <9 hr, and no severe steatosis). Octogenarian donors should be individually assessed in the absence of these ideal conditions.

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, a reduction in the incidence of postoperative pancreatic fistula in the pancreaticogastrostomy group was observed. Although this evidence comes from randomized trials, pancreaticogastrostomy cannot be considered superior to pancreaticojejunostomy due to the presence of clinical heterogeneity among studies and the absence of differences in overall morbidity, reoperations, and mortality.

The aim of this study was to describe a new technique to prevent the development of incisional hernias in trocar sites. Between March and June 2006, a pilot study was conducted to determine the feasibility of the safe port plug technique using the Bioabsorbable Hernia Plug to prevent incisional hernia in trocar sites. The device was implanted in the umbilical trocar site (10-11 mm) of 17 patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery during the study period. The mean follow-up of patients was 14.6 months. Implantation of the Bioabsorbable Hernia Plug device by the safe port plug technique was possible in all cases. No patient presented complications in the follow-up. Our preliminary experience suggests that this technique is simple and feasible, and we hypothesized that this technique could be superior to conventional fascial closure: a hypothesis that must be proven in a randomized prospective trial that is currently in progress.

SILA is comparable to CLA in selected patients, although it is associated with a higher technical failure rate and longer operative time. Further randomized trials are needed to determine if SILA really offers benefits over CLA.

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Division and sealing of the rectal stump with the LigaSure(®) device is feasible in the proposed experimental model, but it is less reliable than conventional closure with a stapler, since it has a significantly greater failure rate. Therefore, The LigaSure(®) device should not be used for this purpose in the clinical setting as this could lead to serious and dramatic complications.