When it comes to surgery, there are two words you want to hear: minimally invasive. Under this heading are a number of procedures — endoscopy, laparoscopy, arthroscopy, and robot-assisted surgery — which are all the result of innovative equipment that allows us to perform incredibly complex procedures in small spaces without the need for open surgery.
Here at Rockwall Surgical Specialists, our team is highly trained in the latest laparoscopic surgical techniques, allowing us to help our patients in Rowlett, Rockwall, Greenville, and Forney, Texas, get the surgery they need and get on with their lives more quickly than was ever possible before.
If you’d like to explore the benefits of laparoscopic surgery, read on.
The keys to laparoscopic surgery are the tools we use that enable us to translate our movements in tiny spaces, starting with the video camera. Mounted on a specialized instrument, we thread this tiny camera and light into the surgical area, which allows us a 3D view of the area. The video camera sends high-definition images back to us in real-time (which we view on a monitor) that are better than even the human eye can achieve since the images are magnified, providing us with an unparalleled and detailed visual.
This piece of the surgical puzzle is just the start, but it’s the key to the whole process. The main reason why surgeons have traditionally relied upon open surgery is to gain visual access to the surgical site. The second reason surgeons needed a larger access was to allow enough space for their hands to go to work.
Thanks to advances in surgical tools, this, too, is no longer an obstacle. Today, we’re also able to thread tiny surgical tools into the area that translate our hand movements with an increased precision and accuracy, allowing us to perform myriad procedures without the need for open access.
Here at our practice, we turn to laparoscopic surgery for a host of procedures, including bariatric surgery, hernia repairs, gallbladders, appendectomies,colon resection for diverticulitis or cancer, and much more. In fact, there are few gastrointestinal issues that we can’t address laparoscopically.
Laparoscopic techniques have fast gained acceptance among surgeons over the past 20 years because of the incredible advantages they offer over traditional surgical techniques. To start, since we only need to make very small incisions (often ½ inch or less), we greatly reduce your risk for infection or collateral tissue damage. If you think about traditional techniques where the surgeon had to cut through tissue and muscles to access the surgical site, you can see why this tissue-sparing procedure is a vast improvement.
Smaller incisions also mean that there’s less blood loss and less tissue that needs to heal post-operatively, which helps speed up your recovery (less hospital time!). Not to mention, with smaller incisions, your level of discomfort is greatly reduced. And if you’re concerned about scarring, laparoscopy leaves little evidence that you’ve undergone surgery.
Upping the laparoscopic game is our use of robot-assisted surgical techniques, which provide the perfect blend of human experience and mechanical precision. With this system, we set up the camera inside and, instead of inserting laparoscopic tools, we thread in robotic arms that increase our accuracy. We are at the controls of these arms the entire time, which means you benefit from our human experience and knowledge throughout.
This is an important point because there are times when we may have one surgical plan going in and encounter something unforeseen, forcing us to change course. This is perfectly normal, and we’re able to quickly adapt and alter the plan, redirecting the equipment where needed, while still achieving our goals.
Ultimately, laparoscopic surgery has allowed us to perform most of our surgeries in a way that delivers great results, while minimizing the disruption and risk that often come with traditional surgery. This means that you can recover more quickly and get back to your life.
If you’d like to learn more about our laparoscopic surgeries, please give us a call, or use the online booking tool found on this website to schedule a consultation.
