Operative Laparoscopy

Laparoscopic surgery entails the use of modern techniques to perform operations on the abdomen of a patient using very small openings or “keyholes”. Conventionally, operations are performed on the abdomen of patients by cutting it wide open so that the hand of the surgeon can be inserted to carry out surgical procedures. However, the disadvantage of this is that wounds created may be large and the attendant pain of the wound may be significant. A large wound is equally at a higher risk of infection. All of this may lengthen the stay of the patient in the hospital and increase other problems that may follow operations. This prompted the development of technologically driven techniques whereby one or few tiny openings are made on the abdomen and with the use of a telescope, the same operations can be carried out without cutting the abdomen wide open. Over the past three decades, laparoscopic surgery has been shown to give so many advantages over the open method in developed countries such that the majority of operations in the abdomen are now carried out by laparoscopy. Unfortunately in Nigeria and in many other developing countries, laparoscopic surgery, with all its advantages, is still not routinely performed in many hospitals.