Camera-guided colon surgery works best for most patients, stud...( ble for the new technique says the rev...),Health

Dr. Michael Stamos, chief of colorectal surgery at the University of California, Irvine, thinks that the difference in operating time will decrease as surgeons improve their laparoscopic skills. "If you look at what some of the top surgeons were doing with the laparoscopic approach even five years ago and compare it to what they can do today, there's a world of difference, in terms of the speed of the operation, the outcomes and the quality," says Stamos.

Why patients who receive laparoscopic surgery rather than conventional surgery do better is not yet known, although there are several theories. "First off, the incisions are smaller," says Stamos. "Consequently, it hurts less and so you're getting less pain medication, which translates into fewer medication side effects. One of the side effects of pain medications is ileus, in which the gut slows down its passage of food particles."

Another factor is that the small intestine is less traumatized during a laparoscopic operation. "We put the patient in a position so that gravity causes the small intestine to fall away from where we're operating," explains Stamos. "When you do conventional surgery, you use retractors to hold the abdominal wall apart and you also have to pack the small intestine out of the way and that traumatizes the bowel, which probably contributes to the ileus."

Stamos thinks this study "is going to help convince the naysayers in this field" and that eventually, all surgeons will be using the laparoscopic approach in most of their colon cases.

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Contact: Wolfgang Schwenk
wolfgang.schwenk@charite.de
Center for the Advancement of Health
19-Jul-2005