WOFAPS 2025 8th World Congress of Pediatric Surgery

Sevim Ecem Ünlü Ballı, Gökhan Berktuğ Bahadır, Gülenay Korkmaz, İbrahim Yıldırım, Hüseyin Emre Atasever, OZLEM EKICI CANPOLAT, Oğuz Mehmet Çevik, İlhami Sürer, Suzi Demirbağ

Department of Pediatric Surgery, Gulhane Research and Training Hospital

Purpose:Patients undergoing robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery showed hypertrophic scarring at the incision sites. In this study, we aimed to retrospectively evaluate the wound site scars after robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery performed in our clinic between 2017-2023.

Methods:Between July 1, 2017,and September 1, 2023, 56patients who underwent robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were evaluated in terms of age, gender,BMI,and operative time. In addition, wound site scars at the 1st month of post-operative follow-up and incision scars at the first-year follow-up were evaluated by three surgeons using standardised hypertrophic scar scores, Manchester scar scoring(MSS),and Modified scar evaluation scoring(MMSS), separately for each patient.

Results:Wounds of twenty pediatric patients(8M,12F) who underwent robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery were evaluated for vascularisation, pigmentation, thickness, skin height, and elasticity. Incision scar images were scored using Manchester scar scoring and Modified scar assessment scoring.There was no significant difference between these independent variables regarding postoperative hypertrophic scar scores.

Conclusion:Our study is the first in the literature to demonstrate hypertrophic scar at the incision site after robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery. To generalise the findings to a larger population, it should be supported by a larger case series and immunohistochemical methods to understand the development of hypertrophic scars after robotic surgery.