Perioperative and oncologic outcomes of single-incision laparoscopy compared with conventional laparoscopy for colon cancer: an observational propensity score-matched study.

Single-incision laparoscopic (SIL) surgery is a recent advance in minimally invasive surgical techniques. From May 2011 to August 2012, 77 patients underwent primary SIL surgery for colon cancer by one colorectal surgeon. Among them, 61 patients were one-to-one-matched to control patients who had undergone conventional laparoscopic (CL) surgery with a propensity-matched score, and the outcomes were compared. Two hundred forty-seven patients with colon cancer underwent radical colectomy. Of these, 77 patients underwent SIL colectomy. After matching, there were no significant differences in the general characteristics between the patients undergoing the two types of surgery. Operation time was significantly longer in SIL surgery (139 vs 121 minutes, P = 0.001), but procedure time (107 vs 99 minutes, P = 0.069) was not significantly longer than CL surgery after eliminating closure time (31 vs 22 minutes, P < 0.001) from the operation time. There was no significant difference in postoperative complications between the two groups (3.3 vs 1.6%, P = 1.000). The mean number of harvested lymph nodes was 23 and 22 for SIL and CL surgery, respectively (P = 0.332). The mean follow-up period was 15.7 for the SIL group and 21.4 months for the CL group (P < 0.001) with two recurrences in the SIL group (3.3%) and three recurrences in the CL group (4.9%, P = 1.000). Disease-free survival at 20 months did not differ significantly between the two groups (93.3 vs 94.7%, P = 0.939). SIL for colonic malignancy can be safely applied for various types of operations and can provide equivalent oncologic resection and perioperative outcomes compared with CL surgery.