Robot-assisted sacrocolpopexy:not only for vaginal vault suspension? An observational cohort study

Introduction and hypothesis: Surgery for pelvic organ prolapse (POP) has high recurrence rates. Long-term anatomical and patient-reported outcomes after pelvic floor repair are therefore required. Methods: This prospective observational cohort study was conducted in a teaching hospital with tertiary referral function for patients with POP. Patients with symptomatic vaginal vault or uterine prolapse (simplified POP Quantification [sPOPQ] stage ≥2), who underwent robot-assisted sacrocolpopexy (RASC) or supracervical hysterectomy with sacrocervicopexy (RSHS), were included. Follow-up visits with sPOPQ evaluations were planned 4 years after surgery. Patients received pre- and postoperative questionnaires reporting symptoms of vaginal bulge, Urogenital Distress Inventory (UDI-6), and Pelvic Floor Impact Questionnaire (PFIQ-7). Primary outcome was patient self-reported symptoms. Secondary outcome was anatomical cure (sPOPQ stage 1) for all vaginal compartments. Results: Seventy-seven patients were included. Sixty-one patients (79%) were evaluated after 50 months (physical examination n = 51). Symptoms of bulge (95% vs 15% p ˂ 0.0005), median UDI-6 scores (26.7 vs 22.2, p = 0.048), median PFIQ-7 scores (60.0 vs 0, p = 0.008), and median sPOPQ stages in all landmarks improved significantly from the pre- to the postoperative visit. Thirty patients (59%) were completely recurrence free and 96% of patients had no apical recurrence. Most recurrences were asymptomatic cystoceles (20%). There was one surgical re-intervention for recurrent prolapse (1.6%). Conclusions: Robot-assisted sacrocolpopexy and RSHS show sustainable results in the treatment of prolapse. Symptoms of bulge, urinary symptoms, and quality of life improved substantially 50 months postoperatively. Patients should be counseled about the risk of anterior wall recurrence and the small chance of recurrent symptoms that need treatment.</p

Hardware Sequencing of Inflatable Nonlinear Actuators for Autonomous Soft Robots

Soft robots are an interesting alternative for classic rigid robots in appli-cations requiring interaction with organisms or delicate objects. Elastic inflatable actuators are one of the preferred actuation mechanisms for soft robots since they are intrinsically safe and soft. However, these pneumatic actuators each require a dedicated pressure supply and valve to drive and control their actuation sequence. Because of the relatively large size of pres-sure supplies and valves compared to electrical leads and electronic control-lers, tethering pneumatic soft robots with multiple degrees of freedom is bulky and unpractical. Here, a new approach is described to embed hardware intelligence in soft robots where multiple actuators are attached to the same pressure supply, and their actuation sequence is programmed by the inter-action between nonlinear actuators and passive flow restrictions. How to model this hardware sequencing is discussed, and it is demonstrated on an 8-degree-of-freedom walking robot where each limb comprises two actua-tors with a sequence embedded in their hardware. The robot is able to carry pay loads of 800 g in addition to its own weight and is able to walk at travel speeds of 3 body lengths per minute, without the need for complex on-board valves or bulky tethers.ERC starting gran

Mesh-related complications and recurrence after ventral mesh rectopexy with synthetic versus biologic mesh:a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Ventral mesh rectopexy (VMR) is a widely accepted surgical treatment for rectal prolapse. Both synthetic and biologic mesh are used. No consensus exists on the preferred type of mesh material. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to establish an overview of the current literature on mesh-related complications and recurrence after VMR with synthetic or biologic mesh to aid evidence-based decision making in preferred mesh material. METHODS: A systematic search of the electronic databases of PubMed, Embase and Cochrane was performed (from inception until September 2020). Studies evaluating patients who underwent VMR with synthetic or biologic mesh were eligible. The MINORS score was used for quality assessment. RESULTS: Thirty-two studies were eligible after qualitative assessment. Eleven studies reported on mesh-related complications including 4001 patients treated with synthetic mesh and 762 treated with biologic mesh. The incidence of mesh-related complications ranged between 0 and 2.4% after synthetic versus 0–0.7% after biologic VMR. Synthetic mesh studies showed a pooled incidence of mesh-related complications of 1.0% (95% CI 0.5–1.7). Data of biologic mesh studies could not be pooled. Twenty-nine studies reported on the risk of recurrence in 2371 synthetic mesh patients and 602 biologic mesh patients. The risk of recurrence varied between 1.1 and 18.8% for synthetic VMR versus 0–15.4% for biologic VMR. Cumulative incidence of recurrence was found to be 6.1% (95% CI 4.3–8.1) and 5.8% (95% CI 2.9–9.6), respectively. The clinical and statistical heterogeneity was high. CONCLUSIONS: No definitive conclusions on preferred mesh type can be made due to the quality of the included studies with high heterogeneity amongst them