Hand-Assisted Laparoscopic Colectomy Improves Perioperative Outcomes Without Increasing Operative Time Compared to the Open Approach: a National Analysis of 8791 Patients.

Introduction: Hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery (HALS) is often used in procedures too complex for completely minimally invasive approaches. However, there are concerns for whether this hybrid approach abrogates perioperative benefits of the completely minimally invasive technique.

Methods: We queried the 2012-2013 National Surgery Quality Improvement Program for adults undergoing elective HALS or open colectomy (OC).