A porcine model for robotic training harvest of the rectus abdominis muscle.

Conventional open surgical approaches for the harvesting of the rectus abdominis muscle carry a high risk of morbidity. It is possible to reduce these risks by using laparoscopy or robot-assisted techniques. This work hypothesizes that a porcine model could be used for learning the robot-assisted collection of the rectus abdominis. The rectus abdominis was taken in 3 stages in 3 pigs: installation of the robot, surgical approaches with 4 trocars, dissection and collection of the muscle. The average operating time was 1h20min and the average muscular length was 16cm. Our results showed a learning curve for the robot-assisted harvesting of the rectus abdominis on a porcine model.