Laparoscopy-assisted surgery for prenatally diagnosed small bowel atresia: Simple, safe, and virtually scar free

Versatility of the circumumbilical incision in neonatal surgery

“…In the series from Toronto [17], for children with Hirschsprung's disease, Sauer et al reported a 24% complication rate; however, these procedures were more complex. The benefits of laparoscopic surgery include reduced postoperative pain, improved cosmesis, early mobilisation and discharge with a resultant reduction in hospital costs [9,10,12,18,19]. In 1995, Chen et al [15] reported a complication rate of 4% for thoracic and abdominal minimal access surgery.…”

Transrectal robotic natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) applied to intestinal anastomosis in a porcine intestine model

“…Also, there are no reports of motion and operability of the laparoscopic forceps in single-port surgery. However, this is not a surgery that requires a high degree of freedom, but only an extraction of minor organs [22,23].…”

Transumbilical approach for neonatal surgical diseases: woundless operation

“…In 2003, Soutter and Askew [3] reported a modified Bianchi technique which was used as a new approach for a wide variety of infantile surgical diseases, including diseases for neonates. In 2004, Yamataka [4] reported three neonates who underwent laparoscopy-assisted surgery for prenatally diagnosed small bowel atresia. In 2007, Lin [5] reported six neonates who underwent transumbilical surgery for the treatment of ovarian cysts.…”

“…Regarding the ability to safely and easily treat the disease, no difference between an incision on the upper half circumference or on the lower half circumference was found. Regarding the laparoscopicassisted transumbilical approach for neonates with surgical disease, Yamataka [4] reported surgery in three neonates with prenatally diagnosed small bowel atresia in 2004, and Prasad [6] reported surgery for a neonate with an ovarian cyst in 2007. In both reports, several ports in addition to the umbilical site were used.…”

“…This technique has since been adopted by many pediatric surgeons as a feasible, safe, inexpensive, and virtually scarless approach to hypertrophic pyloric stenosis [2]. Recently, several case reports using a modification of this technique for infants and toddlers for the treatment of a variety of surgical intraabdominal diseases have been published [3][4][5]. In the present study, we assessed the clinical usefulness of the transumbilical approach for neonates with a variety of surgical intraabdominal diseases to achieve minimally invasive surgery with excellent cosmetic results.…”