Robotic-assisted tubal anastomosis with one-stitch technique

Abstract

The da Vinci(®) robotic surgical system has been used more often in recent years for tubal anastomosis (TA) and has been reported to have an increased operative time. A one-stitch technique has been used for the reanastomosis step in laparoscopic TA. To date, publications on robotically-assisted TA (RATA) describe an anastomotic step with multiple (usually four) sutures placed. This retrospective case series reports tubal patency data on patients who underwent RATA with the one-stitch technique; tubal patency was the outcome measure. Eighteen women (ages 27-39) underwent RATA with the one-stitch anastomotic technique in tertiary care medical centers between February 2009 and May 2012. Tubal patency was demonstrated in 16/17 patients (94.1 %), as evidenced by postoperative hysterosalpingogram (HSG) and/or subsequent pregnancies. We report the first case series which shows that RATA with a single stitch for the reanastomotic step is effective in achieving tubal patency as evidenced by postoperative HSG and/or pregnancies.