Minimally Invasive (Laparoscopic or Robotic) Reduced Port (Single Port) Distal Pancreatectomy

In spite of lack of randomized control study, laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy (DP) is regarded as appropriate treatment in managing benign and low grade malignant tumor in distal part of the pancreas. With the advance of laparoscopic skills, innovative instruments, and perioperative management, clinical effort to reduce the access injury for laparoscopic DP has been attempted to enhance the cosmetic effect and the benefit of minimally invasive surgery. Due to inborn technical limitation of laparoscopic surgical system, it is not easy to perform laparoscopic reduced port-or single port-distal pancreatectomy (LRP/LSP-DP) in daily routine clinical practice, however, surgical technique for safe and effective LRP/LSP-DP has been developed. Till now, only a few experts reported the technical feasibility and safety of LRP/LSP-DP in selected patients. According to literature review, the number of the patients who underwent LRP/LSP-DP seems to gradually increase. In this moment, surgical experiences may be too limited to reach the conclusion, but, with the help of robotic surgical system, LRP/LSP-DP has potential room for further investigation. Therefore, minimally invasive surgeons need to pay attention to this innovative movement. In this review, currently available surgical techniques for LRP/LSP-DP has been summarized with some future perspectives on this technique.