Usefulness of a Flexible Port for Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery by the Transrectal and Transvaginal Routes

Figure 2

(a) Schematic layout of the flexible ports that were inserted by the transrectal route. (b) Schematic layout of the flexible ports that were inserted by the transvaginal route. The schemes of the transrectal route and the transvaginal route ensured by the flexible ports are shown in Figure 2. The flexible port is designed to be flexibly adaptable to the intra-abdominal structure and usable when inserted in the abdominal cavity by any route and in any direction. The transrectal route shown in Figure 2(a) and the transvaginal route shown in Figure 1(b) are considered when conducting the surgery of an upper abdominal organ by using the conventional forceps for laparoscope-assisted surgery without change. In the present device insertion study, we used the flexible port as shown in Figures 2(a) and 2(b). Furthermore, we conducted cholecystectomy and partial gastrectomy as shown in Figure 1(a).