Lessening operation and recovery time

Surgeons have come up with a new technique of removing cancerous kidneys through a small incision with the help of their hands and a special camera and instuments. This is the hand-assisted Laproscopic technique, which can be done in significantly less time than the standard laproscopic procedure.
The research, being presented at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association by surgeons from the University of Michigan(U-M) Health System, U.S., may help steer more physicians to choose the less-invasive and more precise technique for their patients.

The study shows that hand-assisted patients get out of the operating room faster, have less complications and recover faster. Dr. J Stuart Wolf, director of the Michigan Center for minimally Invasive Urology and Caleb Nelson, M.D., U-M Urology resident, co-authored the study of 38 patients who had a kidney removed at the U-M because of suspeted renal cell carcinoma. Compared with conventional open surgery, the procedures greatly:

* reduced the size of the incision
* the complexitiy of the operation
* patient's pain
* recovery time
At the U-M and many other centers Laproscopic techniques were performed with tiny cameras and instruments in tubes inserted through small incisions and have nearly replaced the old style nephrectomy.

In hand-assisted operations, the patient's abdomen is inflated by gas so that the surgeon can insert a hand through the small incision through a special pressurised sleeve. Thus the kidney can be removed intact, making it possible to evaluate the cancer. With both the hand and laproscopic instruments doing the work, the surgeon has more control over the operation and a sense of depth and sensation that can be gained through the lens of a camera. This approach is considered better for surgeons who are still learning laproscopic techniques.

More and more doctors turn to hand-assisted laproscopic nephrectomy as a fist hand treatment for cancer patients, and thereby allowing living people to donate a kidney to someone whose ailing.

Wolf from his results of the first-ever randomized clinical trial comparing open surgery to laproscopic surgery for kidney donors found that patients who had the less-invasive operation used 47% less painkillers, that their hospital stays were 35% shorter, and that they have 73% less pain at 6 weeks past the operation. They also returned to strenous activity and work much sooner. But, the operation for laproscopic patients donating a kidney was longer and hospital costs were higher.

For both those who donate a kidney and those who have to have it removed open surgery means:

* a footing incision
* prolonged hospital stay
* prolonged painful recuperation
Whereas Laproscopic surgery means:

* three inch incision
* half the hospital stay
* speedy recovery
* less pain