Surgery of any kind can disrupt your life, and you would jump at the chance to make your surgical journey both faster and easier. Well, the good news is that we can often accomplish both of those objectives thanks to advanced minimally invasive surgery techniques.
Each year in the United States, surgeons perform about 3 million minimally invasive procedures, including the team here at Women’s Clinic of the Rio Grande Valley. Our own Dr. Fernando Otero has considerable expertise and experience with minimally invasive surgeries, and he chooses this path of least resistance whenever possible.
Here, we take a look at some of the advantages of minimally invasive surgery to correct a host of gynecology concerns.
One of the leading reasons why patients and surgeons prefer minimally invasive surgeries is that this type of procedure greatly reduces your recovery time.
Traditionally, doctors needed manual and visual access to the surgical site, which meant using open surgery with larger incisions. With open surgery, the incision has to be big enough to fit a surgeon’s hands and allow them to see everything clearly.
Today, we invite technology into the operating room — technology that allows us to visualize the surgical site and work in a much smaller space. With laparoscopy, Dr. Otero only needs to make small incisions through which he threads a camera and specialized equipment.
With the camera, Dr. Otero can get a close-up view of the surgical site, which he can see on a high-definition monitor. In fact, he can often get a better view than open surgery would allow.
From there, Dr. Otero inserts the surgical tools, which translate the movements of his hands in tiny spaces.
As a result of this minimally invasive approach, you benefit because of:
All of these benefits add up to a recovery that’s much faster and easier than it often is with open surgery.
In the gynecology field, we have many uses for minimally invasive surgery. In fact, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that surgeons take a minimally invasive approach to hysterectomy whenever possible.
Even better, the group recommends that surgeons perform vaginal hysterectomies that eliminate the need for abdominal incisions.
Other ways we use minimally invasive surgical techniques is to address:
We can also use these techniques to diagnose symptoms like pelvic pain or heavy bleeding. For example, we can perform an investigatory hysteroscopy, which allows Dr. Otero to get a glimpse inside your uterus.
The bottom line is that minimally invasive surgery has been a game-changer when it comes to addressing many gynecologic conditions, and we’re proud to offer this technology at our practice.
If you’d like to learn more about how we can shorten and ease your recovery through minimally invasive surgery, please contact one of our offices in McAllen or Edinburg, Texas, to schedule a consultation.
