Getting Under Your Skin Without Opening You Up
June 4, 2001 (Anaheim, Calif.) -- Surgeons treating genital and urinary problems -- from prostate cancer to blockages in urinary flow -- are finding new ways to get under your skin without opening you up.
Laparoscopy, the use of sophisticated imaging technology to guide surgical instruments through small openings in the body, is promising faster recovery, less scarring and pain, and a quicker return to normal activity than more conventional surgical methods.
Doctors here for the annual meeting of the American Urological Association tell WebMD the new technology is becoming mainstream. As it does so, they say, specialists are perfecting the procedure, with results that are as good or better than traditional surgery requiring an incision.
"It's no longer seen as experimental," says Thomas W. Jarrett, MD, associate professor of urology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. "This is an established alternative with good results."
The new surgery takes longer and is more expensive than the traditional open operation, but laparoscopy pioneer Ralph Clayman, MD, says he believes the benefits are well worth the extra costs to hospitals and patients.
"For the patient who can go home without a catheter [in their bladder, a common postsurgical occurrence], who has less pain, and who can go back to work quicker, that makes a big difference," says Clayman, professor of urology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Jarrett has used the procedure to treat a rare condition known as ureteropelvic junction obstruction, in which the flow of urine is blocked at the juncture between the kidney and the ureter, the tube that carries urine to the bladder. Normally, the condition is surgically treated by making a large incision in the patient's back and performing an operation called a "pyeloplasty" to repair the blockage.
With laparoscopy, Jarrett says, the same pyeloplasty can be performed by opening three small holes the size of a fingertip in the abdomen. In one opening, a tiny fiber optic camera is inserted that will provide a video image to the surgeon, who guides miniature surgical instruments through the other openings to perform the surgery.
Getting Under Your Skin Without Opening You Up
June 4, 2001 (Anaheim, Calif.) -- Surgeons treating genital and urinary problems -- from prostate cancer to blockages in urinary flow -- are finding new ways to get under your skin without opening you up.
Laparoscopy, the use of sophisticated imaging technology to guide surgical instruments through small openings in the body, is promising faster recovery, less scarring and pain, and a quicker return to normal activity than more conventional surgical methods.
Doctors here for the annual meeting of the American Urological Association tell WebMD the new technology is becoming mainstream. As it does so, they say, specialists are perfecting the procedure, with results that are as good or better than traditional surgery requiring an incision.
"It's no longer seen as experimental," says Thomas W. Jarrett, MD, associate professor of urology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. "This is an established alternative with good results."
The new surgery takes longer and is more expensive than the traditional open operation, but laparoscopy pioneer Ralph Clayman, MD, says he believes the benefits are well worth the extra costs to hospitals and patients.
"For the patient who can go home without a catheter [in their bladder, a common postsurgical occurrence], who has less pain, and who can go back to work quicker, that makes a big difference," says Clayman, professor of urology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Jarrett has used the procedure to treat a rare condition known as ureteropelvic junction obstruction, in which the flow of urine is blocked at the juncture between the kidney and the ureter, the tube that carries urine to the bladder. Normally, the condition is surgically treated by making a large incision in the patient's back and performing an operation called a "pyeloplasty" to repair the blockage.
With laparoscopy, Jarrett says, the same pyeloplasty can be performed by opening three small holes the size of a fingertip in the abdomen. In one opening, a tiny fiber optic camera is inserted that will provide a video image to the surgeon, who guides miniature surgical instruments through the other openings to perform the surgery.
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