Laparoscopic Hysterectomy

Hello!

I am Dr. Neelima Mantri, masters in obstetrics and gynaecology. I am a consultant and laparoscopic surgeon at Bombay hospital and medical research centre and Nanavati hospital. I have done a fellowship in minimally invasive surgery at Eva Women's University in South Korea. I am going to discuss today the topic of laparoscopic hysterectomy. Women today are faced with multiple gynaecological problems some of the common ones are uterine fibroids, slipping down of the uterus into the vagina commonly called as prolapse, heavy menstrual bleeding, ovarian tumour and sometimes cancers. Women do not pay attention to their basic problems and thus it results in their accumulating and things get advanced. Many a time these problems cannot be resolved completely with medicines and require removal of the uterus which is called as hysterectomy. In olden days, the surgery of uterus removal was performed by taking big cuts around 15-20 cms on the abdomen but now the advances in the technology these surgeries of uterus removal can be completed by taking small incisions on the abdomen, the procedure called as laparoscopy.

What is laparoscopy? Laparoscopy is a procedure where 3-4 small cuts around half to one cm are taken on the abdomen and specialized instruments are passed through them. Through one of the incisions the telescope and camera are passed and the procedure is visualized on the screen. Now the procedure is carried out in this way and the uterus is separated from its attachments and removed. What are the advantages of laparoscopy? First of all, the small cuts are taken on the abdomen so pain is remarkably less as compared to the conventional method. The use of magnified high definition camera makes the object and makes the organ visible, it is more powerful than the human eyes and so the technique is advanced as compared to the open surgery. The blood loss is less as compared to the conventional surgery so patient does not lose much blood and patient remains healthy. Next is that the recovery time is quicker and there is mobilization of the patient on the same day, so the patient is very much satisfied with the procedure, gets discharged in 2-3 days.

For a woman, the entire family is dependent on her, so a patient which in bedridden for many days is not acceptable, so with this laparoscopy procedure, the women are really satisfied because they can join their activities quickly and job also can be resumed quite earlier as compared to the other method. Now, lastly, the cuts are very small so the healing is faster and it is cosmetically very appealing scar as compared to a bigger scar which would have been otherwise. Now one must remember that it is a skill-full surgery, so a skilled surgeon is required so this procedure should be carried out with a gynaecologist who is skilled in this latest advances. Secondly, this procedure requires updated technology so one should opt for hospitals or centers which have this updated technology and latest instruments. So to conclude, I would like to say that women should not neglect their symptoms moreover should be aware that the option of laparoscopy is available to them which will make their life back to normal in a shorter period of time as compared to other options. Thank you so much for watching the video.

Thanks!