It's standing room only in O-R-2 at Tampa General Hospital. From Maine to Alaska surgeons line up to learn how to perform the most minimally invasive surgery available. "It's one incision as opposed to three or four or five." It's called laparo-endoscopic single site surgery or less.
Doctors use it to remove gall bladders, appendixes, liver cysts … and repair hernias and acid reflux disease. A specially-designed port that's inserted through a one-centimeter cut at the belly button allows miniature tools to enter the body. "We could argue that there's less pain and we can certainly say that with one incision there's less risk of problems with hernia and infections."
Sunny Lichtenberg needed surgery for a swallowing disorder. "I had really gotten to the point where I couldn't eat at all."
An operation that used to require up to five incisions across the stomach now only needs one at the belly button. surgeons accessed Sunny's esophagus through the stomach. "Actually I woke up and said how many holes do I have and they said one. And I said, yay! One! I think it made my recovery time so much less."
Today, the piercing above her belly button is actually bigger than the scar from the operation. "One incision is absolutely wonderful I was able to go back to work in a week."
Surgery that does more with less and allows patients to get back to their lives sooner.
The doctors who pioneered the "less" surgery say virtually any kind of minimally invasive procedure can be done with the single-incision method, including a combined hysterectomy and gall bladder removal and removal of cancerous tumors from organs like the pancreas.
BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic surgery is known as minimally invasive surgery. In the procedure, surgeons use a video camera, miniature instruments and around four incisions up to half an inch in size. Plastic tubes called ports are placed through the incisions. The camera and miniature instruments enter the body through the port, allowing doctors access to navigate throughout the inside of the patient's body. A video monitor replaces the doctor's standard view of inside the body during other surgeries. The camera transmits video of the organs and surrounding tissue onto the screen, giving doctors a map during surgery. Incisions made for laparoscopic surgery are much smaller than for open surgery. As a result, patients suffer from less post-operative discomfort and experience quicker recovery times. Laparoscopic surgery offers shorter hospital stays, earlier return to full activities, much smaller scars and less internal scarring.
SINGLE INCISION LAPAROSCOPIC SURGERY: Laparoendoscopic single-site surgery, or LESS, takes laparoscopic surgery to the next level. The many benefits of laparoscopic surgery increase with the development of the single-incision surgery. Doctors at Tampa General Hospital have developed the new technique, which involves cutting into the skin once instead at several locations. The one incision is typically cut into the navel. More traditional laparoscopic surgeries require several incisions at different points across the abdomen.
Recently at the University of South Florida (USF), surgeons removed a 37-year-old woman's uterus and gall bladder through one incision in her belly button. "To the best of our knowledge, this appears to be the first combined single-incision procedure involving both a hysterectomy and cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal)," Stuart Hart, M.D., assistant professor in the USF Division of Obstetrics and Gynecology, was quoted as saying. The patient was left with no scar and went home the next day.
Surgeons at USF also successfully performed the first single-incision laparoendoscopic procedure to take out an adrenal gland tumor. Teaming up with Tampa General Hospital, they have also successfully used the procedure to remove appendix and liver cysts, repair hernias and treat acid reflux disease. "I think that this approach lends itself to performing or undertaking exactly the same operations we've always undertaken, with a less invasive approach,= and a dramatically better cosmetic outcome," Alex Rosemurgy, M.D., Professor of Surgery at the University of South Florida in Tampa, told Ivanhoe.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Ellen Fiss
Public Relations Manager
Tampa General Hospital
(813) 844-6397
efiss@tgh.org
