Closure of enterotomy after side-to-side ileocolic anastomosis with two barbed sutures in totally laparoscopic colectomy for right-sided colon cancer

Good short-term outcomes of intracorporeal ileocolic anastomosis (IIA) in totally laparoscopic colectomy for right-sided colon cancer (TLRC) have been shown in many reports, but no standardized technique for enterotomy closure after stapled side-to-side ileocolic anastomosis has so far been established. We retrospectively compared the short-term outcomes between 13 consecutive patients receiving either TLRC with IIA by conventional enterotomy closure (n = 6) or closure of the enterotomy using two barbed sutures (CEBAS) (n = 7) from July 2019 to April 2020. No anastomotic bleeding or leakage was observed in either group. Time to enterotomy closure was significantly shorter with the CEBAS method (16.5 ± 3.7 min) than with the conventional method (24.5 ± 4.7 min, p = 0.0059). The CEBAS method in TLRC with IIA was thus found to be technically feasible and it might reduce the stress associated with intracorporeal enterotomy closure. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s00595-020-02108-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.