Single-incision laparoscopic surgery for blunt abdominal trauma: A single-institution experience at a level I trauma centre

doi:10.4240/wjgs.122972

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World Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery

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1948-9366

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Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA

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Retrospective Cohort Study

Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.

World J Gastrointest Surg. Oct 27, 2026; 18(10): 122972
Published online Oct 27, 2026. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.122972

Single-incision laparoscopic surgery for blunt abdominal trauma: A single-institution experience at a level I trauma centre

Hancheol Jo, Dong Hun Kim, Jung Wook Suh

Hancheol Jo, Dong Hun Kim, Department of Trauma Surgery, Trauma Center, Dankook University Hospital, Cheonan-si 31116, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea

Jung Wook Suh, Department of Surgery, Dankook University Hospital, Cheonan-si 31116, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea

Author contributions: Jo H was responsible for data curation, formal analysis, writing - original draft; Kim DH was responsible data curation, supervision, resources; Suh JW was responsible conceptualization, methodology, supervision, writing - review & editing; and all authors read and approved the final manuscript.

AI contribution statement: The authors used Gemini (Google LLC, Mountain View, CA, United States), an artificial intelligence language model, solely for the purpose of improving the grammatical naturalness, clarity, and readability of the English text of the manuscript. The tool was utilized strictly for linguistic refinement, and all scientific content, interpretation, and final writing were entirely developed and verified by the authors.

Supported by the Bio & Medical Technology Development Program of the National Research Foundation, No. RS-2023-00220408.

Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Dankook University Hospital Institutional Review Board (Approval No. 2025-11-008).

Informed consent statement: The requirement for informed consent was waived by the Institutional Review Board due to the retrospective nature of this study.

Conflict-of-interest statement: An abstract version of this article was presented at the 77^th Annual Congress of the Korean Surgical Society. The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.

Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset are available from the corresponding author at jickgack@gmail.com.

Corresponding author: Jung Wook Suh, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery, Dankook University Hospital, 201 Manghyang-ro, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-si 31116, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea. jickgack@gmail.com

Received: May 6, 2026
Revised: June 10, 2026
Accepted: June 23, 2026
Published online: October 27, 2026
Processing time: 160 Days and 4.4 Hours

Abstract

BACKGROUND

Laparoscopic surgery remains a safe and feasible option for managing traumatic intra-abdominal organ injuries, offering advantages over laparotomy in terms of pain, cosmesis, and postoperative recovery. Single-incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS) is an evolving technique that aims to further reduce the invasiveness of laparoscopy. The authors report seven cases of small bowel injury from blunt trauma treated with SILS.

AIM

To evaluate the feasibility and safety of SILS in hemodynamically stable patients with blunt abdominal trauma.

METHODS

Adult patients with blunt abdominal trauma who presented to a level 1 trauma centre and were diagnosed with small bowel injury were retrospectively reviewed. Patients who had undergone SILS were identified. Clinical data, operative details, and postoperative outcomes were analyzed.

RESULTS

Seven patients were included in this study. Four patients were male, with a median age of 68 years. The most common mechanism of injury was in-car traffic accidents (5 cases). All patients presented with hemodynamic stability and an alert mental status upon arrival. Injured sites included the ileum (3 cases), mesentery (3 cases), and jejunum (2 cases), with no associated solid organ injuries. Surgical procedures consisted of primary repair in 5 cases and resection with anastomosis in 2 cases. No injuries were missed. Postoperative complications included ileus in 2 cases, with no other complications reported. No mortality was observed during the study period.

CONCLUSION

SILS appears feasible and safe in carefully selected hemodynamically stable patients with blunt abdominal trauma, although larger studies are required to confirm its clinical role.

Keywords: Trauma; Blunt abdominal trauma; Laparoscopy; Small bowel injury; Single-incision laparoscopic surgery

Core Tip: This study presents the first case series evaluating single-incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS) for blunt abdominal trauma. In seven hemodynamically stable patients with small-bowel injuries, SILS enabled both diagnostic exploration and therapeutic management without missed injuries, major complications, or mortality. Although limited by its retrospective design and small sample size, SILS may represent a feasible minimally invasive option in carefully selected trauma patients, with the flexibility to convert to conventional multiport laparoscopy when necessary.