Surgery Made Simpler Thanks to Advanced Medical Developments

If you had gall bladder surgery 25 years ago, you might have had a hospital stay of up to a week. Between less-than-desirable hospital food and lack of sleep from constant interruptions, you'd be wishing you were home by the second day. Three long days after surgery, the painful needle in your arm would finally be replaced by oral pain medication. The entire ordeal would leave you exhausted.

But, thanks to improved technology, this type of surgery is often done as an outpatient procedure, allowing you to return home the very same day. Not only does it reduce medical costs, but it means less disruption of your busy schedule and the comfort of recuperating at home.

Increased medical knowledge has resulted in major new developments in surgery and anesthesia. A combination of factors, including advances in preoperative management, better antibiotics and less-invasive techniques allow more procedures to be performed as outpatient surgery.

Use of the laparoscope, an instrument with a lighted tube and magnifying lens, provides one good illustration. With a laparoscopy, the surgeon makes only small incisions, depending on the surgery, to insert the laparoscope. A tiny video camera is inserted so the surgeon can view the operative area on a video screen. The surgeon's hands remain outside the patient's body. With this device, they can remove gall bladders and perform other surgeries which used to be invasive.

Arthroscopy is another example of surgery made simpler. The surgeon can repair a shoulder, hand or knee joint using this procedure with only a small incision.

Advantages

In the recent past, exploratory surgery was often necessary to determine the patient's particular problem. That, too, has been greatly improved upon, due to advanced diagnostic methods. Today, when surgeons operate they generally know exactly what the problems are and the extent. Imaging techniques such as computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging have substantially lessened the need for exploratory surgery.