One of the objectives that we surgeons have is to minimize the damage that our treatments do to our patients. Per se, classic surgery must access the organs through incisions that produce a surgical wound. Whether it is in the neck, thorax or abdomen, the surgeon has to reach the various anatomical planes in order to reach the diseased organ.
For this reason, the wound causes not only aesthetic but also functional disorders, for example, hernia in the abdominal incision is one of the most frequent long-term complications of the classic approach.
What is laparoscopic or minimally invasive surgery?
What characterizes the laparoscopic approach is the way of accessing the cavities. While in the classic approach large incisions are made, in the minimally invasive approach minimal incisions are made (3-5-12 mm) through which a television camera and various surgical instruments are introduced to carry out the intervention. This form of access has numerous advantages; firstly, the physiological response to surgery is more optimal, producing a better respiratory response and a more moderate inflammatory reaction. Functionally, wound healing is more favorable, since the amount of damaged tissue is obviously less. This fact has an immediate impact on the postoperative pain response, being less intense than in the classic approach.
All this has an impact on the patient’s recovery, the hospital stay is shortened, the convalescence time and the time off work are also shorter.
When is the surgery performed?
General surgery specialists indicate laparoscopic surgery for any digestive or endocrine surgery procedure. Whether benign or tumor diseases, laparoscopic surgery is applied with increasing frequency, although technically they are very demanding procedures that require highly developed surgical skills.
In this sense, our surgical service at Hospital La Luz has considerable experience in this type of approach. For years we have been treating processes such as obesity, hiatal hernia and abdominal wall hernias laparoscopically. Oncologically, we treat tumors of the esophagus, stomach or colon with minimal approaches. The liver and pancreas have been the last organs to adopt this type of surgery because they are procedures that require a high surgical capacity, so in our service we also perform this surgery respecting the same oncological principles of the classic approach (resections with adequate margins, lymphadenectomy, etc.).
All this is possible thanks to a multidisciplinary team of digestive and endocrine pathology of the Hospital Universitario La Luz. It is essential to collaborate with digestologists, oncologists, anesthesiologists, intensivists, endocrinologists, etc. to offer the best treatment opportunities to our patients.