Establishment of Single-Port, Laparoscopic, Pediatric Hernia Repair in a Developing Country.

Single-port, laparoscopic, needle-assisted, inguinal hernia repair (LNAR) in children intends to reduce surgical trauma and enables contralateral assessment and closure of contralateral patent processus vaginalis if necessary. The aim of the present study was to demonstrate that laparoscopic inguinal repair can be performed safely and cost-effectively in a developing country where laparoscopy is not yet commonly used. In this single-center study, we included all children undergoing LNAR between January 2017 and December 2018. Intraoperative and postoperative complications and hospital costs were assessed. We performed 148 hernia repair operations in 117 children (age range 1 month to 15 years). Mean operative time was 20.8 ± 9.4 minutes. Mean length of hospital stay amounted to 10 ± 7.6 hours, with 77.7% of patients discharged within 6 hours. No intraoperative complications occurred in any patient. Complications occurred in six (5.1%) patients. Three (2.5%) patients experienced residual hydrocele, two (1.4%) patients suffered wound site seroma, and one (0.67%) patient experienced recurrent inguinal hernia 6 months after the initial repair. All complications occurred during the first year of the study period. Likewise, operative time ( < .0001) as well as duration of hospital stay ( < .0001) was significantly shorter in the second year. Total costs for complete treatment were below USD 80 per patient, which is comparable with the costs associated with open herniotomy at the same institution. Single-port LNAR and hydrocele repair in children were established safely and cost-effectively in a developing country. Nevertheless, the procedure was associated with a steep learning curve.