Services - Laparoscopic Colorectal Surgery

Laparoscopic Colorectal Surgery

Laparoscopic colorectal surgery is a form of minimally invasive surgery and started in early 1990s in Australia. However, it has become more popular only after 2004 when the result of a large clinical trial was published demonstrating its advantages and safety in cancer surgery.

Laparoscopic colorectal surgery has the following advantages:

SHORT TERM ADVANTAGES

• Quicker recovery
• Less pain, need a lot less pain killers
• Drink and eat early
• Open bowel early
• Shorter hospital stay
• Less complications

LONG TERM ADVANTAGES

• Good cosmetic result for the wounds
• Lower risk of small bowel obstruction in the future
• Lower risk of incisional hernia

Hand-assisted Laparoscopic Colectomy

This type of minimally invasive surgery was developed in the late 1990s in the USA. Dr Chew and Dr Adams developed their own techniques to suit the Australian environment in 2004-2005. The advantages of this minimally invasive surgery technique compared to pure laparoscopic technique are outlined below:

SHORT TERM ADVANTAGES

1. Reduces operating time
2. Makes the operation easier to perform
3. Reduces the chance of converting the operation to an open colectomy due to difficulties encountered during operation. This then avoids all the disadvantages of an open colectomy mentioned above.
4. Easy to teach other surgeons and easy for other surgeons to learn. Therefore, the skill can be more widespread.
5. Hand-assisted laparoscopic colectomy can be applied to more complex cases
6. It also keeps all the above-mentioned short and long term advantages of a laparoscopic colectomy.

LONG TERM ADVANTAGES

1. Good cosmetic result for the wounds
2. Lower risk of small bowel obstruction in the future
3. Lower risk of incisional hernia

Hand-assisted Laparoscopic Surgery (Drawing by Dr Warwick Adams)

Hand Assisted Laparoscopic Surgery. (Drawing by Dr Warwick Adams )

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