Endoscopic surgery requires rethinking the hand-eye relationship and lots of practice. The detail is great, and it takes a different type of hand-eye coordination than many surgeons are used to. Holes and probes in the abdomen may sound like science fiction, but compared to open surgery, the advantages are hard to deny. Those benefits are most often seen in laparoscopic gallbladder surgery, which is now the most common operation in the nation, Katkhouda says. But the laparoscopic technique means less pain, leaves only four tiny scars, and can often be done on an outpatient basis.
Patients can return to work or other physical activities quicker.
At USC, physicians Tom R. DeMeester, M.D., professor and chair of surgery, Cedric G. Bremner, M.D., and Jeffrey H. Peters, M.D., professors of surgery, and their team can rid patients of chronic heartburn and indigestion this way. Ordinarily, a sphincter in the lower esophagus keeps digestive acids in the stomach, where they belong. But a GERD patient often has a defective sphincter that allows gastric juice to regurgitate, causing irritation. For the patient, daily antacids are no longer necessary, and the surgery is done with only five small incisions followed by a 48-hour hospital stay. Perhaps endoscopy is most publicly prominent in the world of sports, where professional athletes often undergo arthroscopic surgery after injuries.