Advantages of the glove port docking technique in robotic single-site cholecystectomy: comparison with the conventional silicone port.

Although the da Vinci Single-Site® silicone port allows exact alignment and effective triangulation of instruments, it also has drawbacks. We introduce an alternative docking technique using the Glove port®. From April 2014 to December 2016, respective 50 patients of the conventional silicone port and the glove port group were compared. The mean docking time was 16.6 ± 6.6 min in the silicone port group and 10.6 ± 3.6 min in the glove port group. Re-docking during the operation was needed in three patients in the silicone port group and readjustment of cannulae without re-docking could be simply performed in five patients in the glove port group. Skin injury was observed in 17 patients in the silicone port group and 0 patients in the glove port group without significant complications. Some limitations of the conventional silicone port were improved by the glove port.