Laparoscopic Surgery

What Is Laparoscopic Surgery?

Laparoscopy is a type of surgery that uses smaller cuts than you might expect.

The process takes its name from the laparoscope, a slender tool that has a tiny video camera and light on the end. When a surgeon inserts it through a small cut and into your body, they can look at a video monitor and see what’s happening inside you. Without those tools, they’d have to make a much larger opening.

Thanks to special instruments, your surgeon won’t have to reach into your body, either. That also means less cutting.
Have you heard people talk about “minimally invasive” surgery? Laparoscopic surgery is one kind. Doctors first used it for gallbladder surgery and gynecology operations. Then it came in play for the intestines, liver, and other organs.

How Safe is laparascopic surgery?

Laparoscopic surgery is as safe as traditional open surgery. At the beginning of a laparoscopic operation the laparoscope is inserted through a small incision near the belly button (umbilicus). The surgeon initially inspects the abdomen to determine whether laparoscopic surgery may be safely performed. If there is a large amount of inflammation or if the surgeon encounters other factors that prevent a clear view of the structures, the surgeon may need to make a larger incision in order to complete the operation safely.

Any intestinal surgery is associated with ¬certain risks such as complications related to anesthesia and bleeding or infectious complications. The risk of any operation is determined in part by the nature of the specific operation. An individual’s general heath and other medical conditions are also factors that affect the risk of any operation. You should discuss with your surgeon your individual risk for any operation.

Benefits of Laparoscopic Surgery

The advent of laparoscopic procedures revolutionized surgery in many ways. Procedures that required weeks to recover from were dramatically reduced in many ways.

A few of the benefits  of Laparoscopic surgeries are:

 

  • reduced bleeding
  • smaller incisions
  • faster healing
  • reduced pain and scarring

Laparoscopic surgery takes more time than the traditional open surgery, but the benefits are undeniable. Recovery time can be reduced from several weeks to several days.

Procedures that can be done with Laparascopic Surgery

Laparoscopic surgery can be used for various procedures which include:

  • Removal of the gallbladder. This is sometimes called a laparoscopic cholecystectomy or ‘lap choly’, for short.
  • Removal of the appendix.
  • Removal of patches of endometriosis.
  • Removal of parts of the intestines.
  • Female sterilisation.
  • Treating ectopic pregnancy.
  • Taking a biopsy of various structures inside the abdomen, which can be looked at under the microscope and/or tested in other ways.

The key advantages of laparoscopic surgery are the quicker recovery time and reduced need for pain relief, compared to traditional (open) surgery.

The Procedure

 

The main procedure involves the following steps:

 

  • A patient is given a general anesthetic and feels no pain throughout the procedure.
  • One or more small incisions are made in the abdomen, usually around the belly button area.
  • A tube is inserted at the incision site and the abdomen is inflated with carbon dioxide gas. This allows the surgeon a better view of the internal organs, as well as more room to work. The laparoscope is inserted through the tube and images of the internal structures are relayed to the TV monitor.
  • Surgical instruments can then be inserted via further small incisions that can be made, depending on what the surgeon finds and what procedures they need to perform.
  • Once the operation is finished, the gas is expelled from the abdomen and the incision is closed using stitches.