Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 23, 1990 TAG: 9005230206
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES HITE MEDICAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The procedure involves use of a lighted, flexible tube, or laproscope, and a contact laser scalpel.
Surgeons make four small incisions in the abdomen. The laproscope is inserted through one of the incisions and a video camera is attached. The abdomen then is inflated with carbon dioxide gas to separate organs and allow a clearer view of the gallbladder, a small, pear-shaped organ beneath the right side of the liver that stores a digestive liquid called bile.
The laser and other instruments are inserted through the three remaining incision sites. The laser scalpel is used to free the gallbladder from the liver. The gallbladder is then removed through the laproscope incision.
Dr. Antonio Donato, who used the procedure on a 19-year-old woman this month, says about 90 percent of all patients needing gallbladder surgery could benefit from the technique.
The patient, Robin Dillon, stayed in the hospital only two days, compared with six or seven days for patients recuperating from traditional surgery.
"It was a breeze. I couldn't believe how fast I was able to get up and walk around," said Dillon, who returned to her job at a grocery store a week after surgery.
"I have a new baby and I was taking care of her the day after I came home," she added. Dillon said her father had gallbladder surgery several years ago and was out of work about two months.
Donato said patients experience less discomfort because there is no need for a major incision.
The hospital charge for the new procedure is $5,200, compared with $6,368 for the the traditional method. More than 515,000 gallbladders were removed in 1988, making it the second most common surgical procedure. Community Hospital did 206 in 1988.
The actual surgery using the new technique is "more tedious" and takes more time because the surgeon must rely on indirect eye-hand coordination through a video monitor, Donato said. He likened the experience to games where toys in a glass case are picked up by a crane that is operated by outside controls.
But, he said, as surgeons gain more experience with the new technique, they should be able to do it in about the same time as the old method.
by CNB