The role of tibial nerve stimulation for enhanced postoperative recovery after colorectal surgery: a double-blind, parallel-group, randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Postoperative ileus (POI) is the most common cause of prolonged hospital stay following abdominal surgery, despite an optimized enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) program. The aim of the study was to evaluate the role of postoperative transcutaneous electrical tibial nerve stimulation (TTNS) in the recovery of bowel function and in shortening hospital stay after colonic resection. METHODS: Patients having elective laparoscopic colonic surgery within an ERAS program at our institution between June 2016 and June 2019 were enrolled and randomly assigned to a treatment protocol with TTNS or sham electrical stimulation. The primary endpoint was the time of recovery of gastrointestinal motility, measured as the first passage of stool. Secondary endpoints included: first passage of flatus, length of hospital stay, and complication rate related to the use of TTNS. RESULTS: One hundred and seventy patients who had right hemicolectomy (median age 71 years (range 43-89 years); 47.5% women) and 170 patients who had left colectomy (median age 67 years range (37-92 years); 41.5% women) were enrolled. The only factor significantly affected by TTNS was time to first passage of flatus after right hemicolectomy (reduced from 46 to 33 h, p = 0.04). However, if only patients with low compliance to early oral nutrition (63 of 340; 18.5%) were considered, a statistically significant difference in time until first flatus (p < 0.01) and first bowel movement (p < 0.0001) and a shorter time until discharge (median 5 vs 7 days) were found in both left and right colectomies groups, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: TTNS may have a positive effect on gastrointestinal tract motility and recovery from POI after colorectal surgery in a selected group, who has low compliance with an ERAS program, without increasing the risk of complications.

Challenges in robotic distal pancreatectomy: systematic review of current practice.

Over the last decade, robotics has gained popularity and is increasingly employed to accomplish several abdominal surgical procedures. Nevertheless, pancreatectomies are regarded as demanding procedures for which the application of minimally-invasive surgery is still limited and its effectiveness has not been conclusively established. We aimed to investigate the current role of robot-assisted surgery to perform distal pancreatectomy. A systematic review of the English-language literature was conducted for articles dealing with robotic-assisted distal pancreatectomies. All relevant papers were evaluated on surgical and oncological outcomes. A total of 10 articles reporting on robotic distal pancreatectomies were finally considered in the analysis, including 259 patients. Mean operative time was 271 minutes (range 181-398); mean blood loss was 210 mL (range 104-361), in 11.6% of cases conversion to laparotomy occurred, spleen preservation was accomplished in 51.4% of procedures, mean time of postoperative hospital stay was 7 days. Overall, postoperative mortality and morbidity were 0% and 23.4% respectively, the mean number of lymph nodes harvested was 12.7. In all included series, no case of R1 resection was reported. Despite its relatively recent introduction in clinical practice, robotic-assisted surgery has been widely employed to perform distal pancreatectomy worldwide and it should be considered a safe and effective procedure. Both surgical and pathologic data support its application in the management of pancreatic lesions of the body and tail.