Single incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS)

Many human diseases require surgery as a form of treatment. Some of the most common diseases include appendicitis, surgery for gallbladder stone. Laparoscopic surgery grew in acceptance after it was attempted for gallbladder removal surgery. Laparoscopic surgery offers many advantages like small cuts, less post-operative pain, early resumption of activities.

SILS was first described in 1997 for a gallbladder removal surgery. This technique goes one step further in minimizing post-operative discomfort. This technique involves performing the entire surgery through a single cut made in the belly button. Using the entire belly button skin, such a cut allows an area of 2 cm through which multiple instruments can be passed. Thus, instead of multiple cuts as in traditional laparoscopic surgery, SILS requires only one cut. This evolving technique offers even better cosmesis, single scar buried within the navel, lesser blood loss as compared to traditional laparoscopic surgery. With increasing public awareness and surgeon’s experience, SILS has allowed surgeons to perform same surgeries with fewer invasions to the body tissues.                  .

Table 1.

Comparison of Traditional Laparoscopic surgery vs SILS

With growing acceptance, SILS has been applied to gastroenterology, general surgery, bariatric surgery, urology and gynecology.