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.