Understanding the Laparoscopic Colon Surgery Process

While surgery is rarely good news, when the words “laparoscopic” or “minimally invasive” are attached to it, the news is a little better.

Each year in the United States, doctors perform more than 600,000 colon surgeries to treat a wide range of colon diseases, from diverticulitis to colorectal cancers. In most of these cases, surgeons can do so using laparoscopy, which can greatly improve the entire process.

To help you understand the benefits of minimally invasive procedures, the experienced team of general surgeons at Rockwall Surgical Specialists provides a more detailed look at a typical laparoscopic colon surgery in this month’s blog. 

Making minimal incisions with laparoscopy

One of the biggest differences between traditional open surgery and laparoscopic surgery is that we don’t need to make a large incision across your lower abdomen to access your colon. Instead, we use specialized tools that we thread through much smaller incisions to translate the work of the surgeon’s hands in much smaller spaces. 

For their part, the surgeon uses special hand grips that maneuver the instruments inside your body that are directly working on your colon.

To help us guide the instruments, we use a high definition camera that we insert through one of the incisions. This camera provides a clear and magnified view of the surgical area on a screen in front of the surgeon. In reality, this magnified view allows for more precision and accuracy.

In most cases, we make four or five small access points — each incision is about ¼ to ½ inch long, though sometimes we may need to widen an incision if we need to remove a larger piece of tissue.

During all of this, you’re under general anesthesia, so you don’t feel a thing.

Shorter recovery time with laparoscopic surgery

Once we complete our work, we close the small incisions using surgical tape, staples, stitches, or surgical adhesive. We then place you in a recovery area so we can monitor you as you come out of the general anesthesia. Once we’re sure that everything is OK on your end, we move you to your recovery room.

The good news is that, thanks to laparoscopy, your hospital stay is much shorter because there isn’t as much tissue damage from the procedure itself. This reduces the risks for infection and speeds up healing time. Exactly how long you can expect to stay in the hospital depends upon the extent of your colon procedure.

When we send you home, rest assured that we’re still supporting you during your recovery. We provide you with complete aftercare instructions as well as a timeline for getting back to activity, and we’re available to answer questions.

If you’d like to know more about laparoscopic colon surgery, please don’t hesitate to call us at 972-412-7700. You can also connect with us online to schedule an appointment at one of our offices in Rockwall, Rowlett, Greenville, Terrell, or Forney, Texas.