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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Pharmacol Ther. May 6, 2016; 7(2): 217-226
Published online May 6, 2016. doi: 10.4292/wjgpt.v7.i2.217
Minimally invasive surgery for inflammatory bowel disease: Review of current developments and future perspectives
Philipp-Alexander Neumann, Emile Rijcken
Philipp-Alexander Neumann, Emile Rijcken, Department of General and Visceral Surgery, University Clinic of Muenster, 48149 Muenster, Germany
Author contributions: Neumann PA and Rijcken E solely contributed to this paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Emile Rijcken, MD, Department of General and Visceral Surgery, University Clinic of Muenster, Albert-Schweitzer Campus 1, 48149 Muenster, Germany. rijcken@uni-muenster.de
Telephone: +49-251-8356301 Fax: +49-251-8356414
Received: December 13, 2015
Peer-review started: December 14, 2015
First decision: January 18, 2016
Revised: February 9, 2016
Accepted: March 7, 2016
Article in press: March 9, 2016
Published online: May 6, 2016
Processing time: 129 Days and 22.5 Hours
Abstract

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) comprise a population of patients that have a high likelihood of both surgical treatment at a young age and repetitive operative interventions. Therefore surgical procedures need to aim at minimizing operative trauma with best postoperative recovery. Minimally invasive techniques have been one of the major advancements in surgery in the last decades and are nowadays almost routinely performed in colorectal resections irrespective of underlying disease. However due to special disease related characteristics such as bowel stenosis, interenteric fistula, abscesses, malnutrition, repetitive surgeries, or immunosuppressive medications, patients with IBD represent a special cohort with specific needs for surgery. This review summarizes current evidence of minimally invasive surgery for patients with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis and gives an outlook on the future perspective of technical advances in this highly moving field with its latest developments in single port surgery, robotics and trans-anal techniques.

Keywords: Inflammatory bowel disease; Minimally invasive surgery; Laparoscopy; Colorectal; Robotic

Core tip: Laparoscopic techniques have been applied to a wide variety of surgical procedures for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Beside the feasibility and safety, numerous short time advantages for laparoscopic techniques such as reduced trauma, reduction of morbidity, and reduced hospital stays have been well documented for IBD patients as well. Newly emerging minimally invasive techniques such as single port laparoscopic surgery, robotic surgery or transanal techniques will further expand the field of IBD surgery.