A Comparison of Robot-assisted Single Site and Laparoscopic Single-incision Cholecystectomy for Benign Gallbladder

In the researchers' words

A single-blinded randomized clinical trial (RCT) designed to compare Single-Site robot-assisted with single-incision laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The study directly compares both surgical approaches in a cohort of 60 patients (30 patients in each arm) with benign gallbladder disease from the Department of Surgery at the Cantonal Hospital of Winterthur (Kantonsspital Winterthur) in Switzerland. The primary endpoint of the study is the surgeon's physical and mental stress load at the time of surgery and is assessed by validated Local Experienced Discomfort (LED) and Subjective Mental Effort Questionnaire (SMEQ) visual analogue scales. The secondary endpoints include costs of the procedure, intra-operative blood loss, operating time, intra-operative conversion rate and additional trocar placement, complications, length of hospital stay, Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and cosmesis. HRQoL and cosmesis will be assessed using the validated Gastrointestinal Quality of Life Index (GIQLI) and the Body Image Questionnaires (BIQ), respectively. The inclusion criteria cover most notably symptomatic cholecystolithiasis, chronic cholecystitis, benign gallbladder polyps and age ≥18 years. The exclusion criteria are, among others, acute cholecystitis, emergency cholecystectomy, previous extensive upper abdominal surgery and suspicion of malignant disease. Non-stratified block…