Chronic pancreatitis is a debilitating pancreatic inflammatory disease characterized by intractable pain resulting in poor quality of life. Conventional management of pancreatic pain consists of a step-up approach with medications and lifestyle modifications followed by endoscopic intervention. Traditionally surgery is reserved for patients who do not improve with other interventions. However, recent studies suggest that early surgical intervention is more beneficial as it can mitigate the progression of the pathological process and prevent loss of pancreatic function. Despite the widespread adoption of minimally invasive approaches in various gastrointestinal surgical disorders, minimally invasive surgery for chronic pancreatitis is slow to evolve. Technical difficulty due to severe inflammatory changes has been the major impediment to the widespread usage of minimally invasive surgery in chronic pancreatitis. With this background, the present review aimed to critically analyze the available evidence on the minimally invasive treatment of chronic pancreatitis. A Pub Med search of all relevant articles was performed using the appropriate keywords, parentheses, and Boolean operators. Most initial laparoscopic series have reported the feasibility of lateral pancreaticojejunostomy, considered an adequate procedure only in a small proportion of patients. The pancreatic head is the pacemaker of pain, so adequate decompression is critical for long-term pain relief. Recent studies have documented the feasibility of minimally invasive duodenum-preserving pancreatic head resection. With improvements in laparoscopic instrumentation and technological advances, minimally invasive surgery for chronic pancreatitis is gaining momentum. However, more high-quality evidence is required to document the superiority of minimally invasive surgery for chronic pancreatitis.

Purpose: Robotic surgery for pancreatic diseases is currently on the rise, feasible, well-accepted, and safe. Frequently performed procedures in relation to pancreatic diseases include distal pancreatectomy and pancreatoduodenectomy. The literature commonly describes robotic lateral pancreaticojejunostomy; however, data on robot-assisted Frey's is scarce. Methods:We herein, describe our series and technique of robot-assisted Frey's procedure at our tertiary care center between November 2019 and March 2022, and its short-term outcomes in comparison to the open Frey's. Patients with chronic pancreatitis having intractable pain, dilated duct, and no evidence of inflammatory head mass or malignancy were included in the study for robot-assisted Frey's.Results: In our study, out of 32 patients, nine patients underwent robot assisted Frey's procedure. The duration of surgery was significantly longer in robotic group (570 minutes vs. 360 minutes, p = 0.003). The medians of intraoperative blood loss and postoperative analgesic requirement were lower in robotic group, but the difference was not statistically significant (250 mL vs. 350 mL, p = 0.400 and 3 days vs. 4 days, p = 0.200, respectively). The median length of hospital stay was shorter in the robotic group, though not significant (6 days vs. 7 days, p = 0.540). At a median follow-up of 28 months, there was no significant difference in the postoperative complications and short-term outcomes between the two groups. Conclusion:Robotic surgery offers benefits of laparoscopic surgery in addition it has better visualization, magnification, dexterity, and ergonomics. Frey's procedure is possible robotically with acceptable outcomes in selected patients.

To the Editor: Thank you for publishing our article titled "Early experience with robot-assisted Frey's procedure surgical outcome and technique: Indian perspective" in December issue of volume 25, 2022. In the original publication, we have missed the error in the corresponding author notation. We would like to correct the corresponding author as follows.

Urinary catheterisation is one of the most commonly performed urological emergency procedures worldwide. A long dwelling urinary catheter could be complicated by catheter obstruction due to encrustation and stone formation. Traditionally open cystolithotomy was the treatment standard but minimally invasive procedures like cystolitholapexy , ESWL, pneumatic or Laser lithotripsy are frequently being used with greater ease and expertise worldwide. We present the case of a 70 year old male who had urosepsis due to stone formation over the neglected Foley's catheter balloon. The patient was managed successfully wit Holmium laser lithotripsy.