Robotic Repair of Remote Traumatic Diaphragmatic Hernia

Karalyn Bentley-Kumar, MD; Alejandro Mejia, MD, FACS

Product Details
Product ID: ACS-5576
Year Produced: 2018
Length: 9 min.


We present a 53-year-old female who suffered a remote auto-pedestrian accident and developed a left diaphragmatic hernia. This was never repaired and contained stomach, small intestine, colon, spleen, and pancreatic tail within the left hemithorax. Her symptoms included shortness of breath, weight loss, and abdominal discomfort. It was determined that she would benefit from minimally invasive repair and was taken to the operating room for robotic diaphragmatic hernia repair with an abdominal approach. Procedure: While supine, the patient was placed in reverse Trendelenburg position with right tilt to elevate the left upper quadrant. The contents of the hernia were reduced into the abdomen with minimal difficulty. Some adhesions were found in the chest and released to reduce the hernia contents. The chest cavity was then explored and a pigtail catheter chest tube was placed to assist with lung reexpansion and drain any effusions that develop. The hernia defect was then closed primarily with a running V-Lock nonabsorbable suture and reinforced with Goretech mesh with two running V-Lock absorbable sutures. The patient did well postoperatively with excellent lung expansion and minimal drainage from her chest tube. This was removed and three-month post procedure CT demonstrated no recurrence of the hernia.