Laparoscopic & Robotic Surgery

Conventional surgical techniques require incisions that are large enough to accommodate both the surgeon’s hands and tools while providing a line of sight for the surgeon to operate.

The resulting incision cuts through skin, muscle and other tissue that isn’t involved with the surgical site itself, and the healing of this tissue often influences the duration of recovery far more than the target of the procedure.

Minimally invasive surgery uses ultra-small incisions, usually less than one-half of an inch, to accommodate surgical tools and, most importantly, a camera that permits the surgeon to see inside your body without moving large amounts of other tissue.

Laparoscopy and robotic surgery are commonly used to perform minimally invasive techniques.

Laparoscopy was one of the first minimally invasive surgical techniques, using tubes, fiber optic cameras, and tiny instruments. It is still used today and serves as the basis for many procedures.

Robotic techniques work similarly. Instead of manually controlling the instruments inside your body, the surgeon takes control of a robot that in turn operates special surgical tools that can often move in ways that manually controlled tools could not.

This allows your surgeon to complete complex surgical procedures in a minimally invasive fashion. Some robotic surgeries can even be done through a single incision rather than multiple small incisions.

Both fields experience constant innovation and refinements. These developments permit the conversion of more procedures over to minimally invasive techniques.

This, in turn, reduces the impact of surgery on the secondary tissue. With no large incisions to close and heal, surgical recovery times reduce, and often other complications of surgery, such as infection, don’t occur as often.

Laparoscopic and robotic surgical techniques can be adapted to many gynecological surgeries. Removal of both benign and malignant tumors is possible, as is the removal of uterine fibroids and some repairs of pelvic prolapse.

One of the most common gynecological surgeries is a hysterectomy. This can be a major surgery when performed the conventional way, requiring a large incision across the abdomen.

Laparoscopic and robotically-assisted techniques typically use up to five spot incisions for tool and camera access. The advantages over conventional hysterectomy include:

• Less bleeding
• Less scarring
• Shorter hospital admissions
• Reduced risk of complications and infections
• Faster return to daily activities