Strangulated ileus from barbed suture following robot-assisted radical cystectomy: A case report

The barbed suture e.g. V-Loc (TM), are occasionally used in urological surgery due to the practical advantage of omitting the need for surgical knots and reducing surgical time. In this report, an 83-year-old man diagnosed as having invasive bladder cancer underwent robot-assisted radical cystectomy: on the thirteenth postoperative day, he was diagnosed as having strangulated ileus of the small bowel. The small bowel was strangulated by bands formed between the stump of V-Loc (TM) and the fatty appendices of the sigmoid colon. This is the first report of a small bowel ileus associated with the barbed suture in the field of urology.