
it allows surgeons to perform relatively big operations through small incisions
with this sort of surgery it may take the surgeon longer to perform but takes patients shorter time to recover
It uses a pencil thin tube called a laparoscope, which is connected to a light and a camera so that the doctors can see what’s happening inside of you.
Gas is used to swell the tummy so that the doctor can see your inside more clearly.
Then the laparoscope is put into the tummy through a small cut (about 1 cm) near the belly button. The shining of the light allows to doctor to view any problems that can be fixed.
Usually to do this one or two more cuts are made in the pubic hairline so that other instruments can be used to obtain tissue samples (a biopsy) or fix what is making you unwell such as taking out a diseased part.
An instrument may also be passed from the vagina into the womb so as to move it around and look for any problem.
After the operation the instrument is removed, gas released, and the cuts are closed, usually with the stitches that dissolve.
A laparoscopy is performed under general anaesthesia, so you will be completely asleep throughout and unable to feel any pain.
The operation lasts for about one hour and can usually be done as a day case. This means you come into the hospital on the day of the operation and go home on the same day. However this depends on the extent of the surgery and how well you recover from the operation.
Why do I need one?
If you are having pains or swellings in the tummy that point out towards the womb, ovaries, fallopian tubes a look inside is sometimes needed to see what is going on.
Laparoscopy can be used in the diagnosis and the treatment of:
- Pelvic pain due to
- endometriosis,
- infections,
- twisting (torsion) of an ovary, ovarian cyst, scar tissue (adhesions) in the pelvis.
- Pelvic swellings such as fallopian tube or ovary or the uterus (fibroids)
- infertility
- Hysterectomy
- Myomectomy removal of fibroids
- Treatment of severe endometriosis
- Division of scar tissue Adhesions
- Repair of prolapse
- Correction of abnormalities of the womb