What Is A Laparoscopy?
Laparoscopy is a surgical diagnostic procedure used to examine the organs inside the abdomen. It is also known as diagnostic laparoscopy. It’s a low-risk, minimally invasive method that requires only small cuts. The process gets its name from the ‘Laparoscope’, a thin tool that has a tiny video camera and light on the end. When a surgeon inserts it through a small incision into your body, they can look at a video monitor and see what’s happening inside.
Some of the primary benefits of laparoscopic surgery over traditional open surgery are as below:
- Laparoscopic surgeries often require a shorter hospital stay than traditional open surgery
- Patients also experience less discomfort and bleeding after surgery
- As the cut wound is much smaller than the large incision made in traditional open surgery, post-surgical scarring is significantly less.
- Patients get back to their normal activities sooner
- The exposure of internal organs to possible external contaminants is less thereby reduced the risk of inviting infection
The primary procedure involves the following steps:
- A patient is given general anesthesia and feels no pain throughout the procedure
- One or more small cuts are made in the abdomen, usually around the belly button area
- A tube is inserted at the incision site and the abdomen is inflated by carbon dioxide gas. This provides the surgeon a better glimpse of the internal organs, as well as more space to work. The laparoscope is inserted through the tube and images of the internal structures are transmitted to the TV monitor.
- Surgical instruments can then be inserted via further small cuts that can be made, depending on what the surgeon encounters and what procedures they need to perform.
- Once the procedure is finished, the gas is expelled from the abdomen and the cut is closed using stitches.
Laparoscopy lets your doctor see inside your body in real-time, without open surgery. Your doctor also can collect biopsy specimens during this procedure.
Results from laparoscopy indicating the absence of abdominal bleeding, hernias, and intestinal blockages mean that all your organs are doing well.
Results indicating cysts, tumors, fibroids, abnormal growth in a certain area, hernias indicate abnormalities in your abdomen and your general surgeon may ask you for further procedures.
