Early Evaluation of a Next-Generation Robotic System in Inguinal Hernia Repairs: Initial Experience from a Tertiary Care Hospital in India

Robotic surgery has experienced a boom in the past decade in all fields of surgery, especially general surgery. Hernia surgeries especially have been extensively performed via the robotic approach. In our case series, we detail our initial experience with the new robotic system Versius© for hernia surgery. We have performed transabdominal preperitoneal mesh repair for 14 patients diagnosed with inguinal hernias using this new system. Baseline demographics and pre-, intra-, and postoperative parameters were recorded. All patients were male, with mean age and BMI of 48.5 ± 15.28 years and 22.07 ± 1.54. Most of the patients were American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA) Grade 2. The bedside unit (BSU) set-up times were constant at 31.64 ± 3.73 min. The overall console times were noted to be decreasing with every case operated. Mean hospital stay was 2.57 ± 1.01 days and postoperative pain scores were 2.35 ± 0.49 on the visual analog scale (VAS). We conclude that robotic surgery using the new Versius system is a feasible alternative for inguinal hernias.