Introduction: Port site herniation is one of the serious complications of laparoscopic surgery, which decreases its benefits. Closure of a fascia defect at the port site is an important problem of laparoscopic surgery, especially in obese patients.
Aim: To evaluate needle grasper fascia closure.
Material and methods: We closed the port site fascia using a percutaneous organ-holding device (needle grasper) in laparoscopic cholecystectomy patients. This study included 334 patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy between January 2015 and January 2017 in our hospital. Patients were divided into 2 fascia closure groups: group 1 with a standard simple suturing technique and group 2 with a needle grasper to close the port site. Patient demographics, operative details, and postoperative outcomes were collected and evaluated.
Results: There were 243 female and 91 male (total 334) patients with the mean age of 49.18 ±13.15 years. Only 1 patient in the BMI > 30 kg/m2 group of patients had port site hernia development with the needle grasper technique at the end of the 8-month follow-up period. The port site hernia incidence was higher in group 1 than group 2 (p < 0.001), but there was no significant difference in terms of operation duration between the two groups (p < 0.001, p = 0.709, respectively). In patients with a BMI > 30 kg/m2, both operation duration and port site hernia incidence were higher in simple suture closure than in the needle grasper technique (p < 0.001, p = 0.016, p = 0.005).
Conclusions: The needle grasper technique is easy, simple, safe, fast, and effective for fascia closure of port sites. This method can also be applied in obese patients easily, safely and in a short time.
Keywords: laparoscopic cholecystectomy; needle grasper; port site hernia.