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Laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair is currently one of the most commonly performed minimally invasive surgical procedures. In recent years, single-incision operations have been developed to further reduce the invasiveness of the surgery. Herein, we report our early experience with single-incision laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair in Asia, with both the transabdominal preperitoneal (TAPP) and totally extraperitoneal (TEP) approaches.This is a retrospective review of prospectively collected data on a cohort of consecutive patients with inguinal hernia who underwent single-incision laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair in a minimal access surgical center in Hong Kong between January 2010 and January 2011.Our cohort consists of 15 patients who underwent single-incision laparoscopic inguinal hernia; 13 were unilateral and two were bilateral hernias. The mean age was 59.8 years old (range, 28-74 years). The overall mean operative time was 59.53 min (range, 25-120 min). For unilateral hernia repair, the mean operative time was 56 min (range, 25-75 min) and 48.5 min (range, 41-55 min) for TAPP and TEP, respectively. In all cases single-incision laparoscopic hernia repair was successfully performed, no additional trocars were required, and there were no conversions to conventional laparoscopic or open inguinal hernia repair. All patients were discharged on the same day as the procedure.Single-incision laparoscopic inguinal hernia is feasible in both TEP and TAPP approaches. The procedure should be performed by laparoscopic surgeons with a high level of experience in single-incision surgery. Further randomized trials should be performed to evaluate the full potential and clinical application of single-incision TAPP and TEP.

This study was designed to compare stapled vs. conventional hemorrhoidectomy for patients with acute thrombosed hemorrhoids. Forty-one patients with acute thrombosed hemorrhoids were randomized into: 1) stapled hemorrhoidectomy (PPH group; n = 21), and 2) open hemorrhoidectomy (open group; n = 20). Emergency surgery was performed with perioperative data and complications were recorded. Patients were followed up by independent assessors to evaluate pain, recurrence, continence function, and satisfaction at regular intervals. The median follow-up for the PPH group and open group were 59 and 56 weeks, respectively. There was no significant difference in terms of the hospital stay, complication rate, and continence function; however, the mean pain intensity in the first postoperative week was significantly less in the PPH group (4.1 vs. 5.7, P = 0.02). Patients in the PPH group recovered significantly faster in terms of the time to become analgesic-free (4 vs. 8.5 days, P