2009 WDH offers Single Incision Laparoscopic Surgery
8/16/09
Surgeons offer Single Incision surgery
A combination of advanced skills and new equipment, now allows surgeons at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital to use a single, small incision for gallbladder, appendectomy and other surgery by replacing the more traditional method of three or four, half-inch incisions with a virtually invisible scar.
Single Incision Laparoscopic Surgery (SILS) is the latest, less painful advancement in laparoscopic surgery. All laparoscopic surgery uses tiny incisions that quickly heal and fade away but the SILS creates only one tiny scar in the belly button that remains almost impossible to see. Seacoast General Surgeons David Coppola, MD and Patricia Auty, MD, explained the new surgical procedure.
“This technique will soon become the new standard for our patient population,” Dr. Coppola said. “The main advantage is cosmetic since the incision is completely hidden in the belly button and a majority of patients will qualify for this procedure. Fewer incisions also mean less pain and faster recovery.”
Single-incision surgery involves the use of flexible instruments that can easily move around inside the body and produce images from almost every angle. The procedure begins with the insertion of a specially designed SILS port in the umbilicus or belly button. The surgeon inserts three hollow tubes or cannula into the port. Instruments with flexible tips are inserted into the tubes that allow 80 degrees of movement left to right and top to bottom. These instruments give the surgeon hand-like access to difficult anatomy with improved ease of use.
Dr. Auty said the single incision is much easier to close and it’s location in body produces less wound pain than other areas of the abdomen. “Because there’s less muscle in that area patients experience less discomfort with this single incision than they might with the three or four incisions we used before SILS,” Dr. Auty explained.
Single incision surgery represents an important step for minimally-invasive surgical procedures. In addition to Drs. Coppola and Auty, Drs. Paul Butler and Joseph Rodriguez of Seacoast General Surgery also use the SILS procedure.
For more information, please call Seacoast General Surgery 603-749- 2266.
