Top videos
From across the room, using controls and pedals—pediatric surgeons at Golisano Children’s Hospital are now able to operate on patients without even touching them. “It allows performances of deep surgeries in the pelvis or abdomen through tiny, little incisions as opposed to a traditional, large incision to get access to the areas where urologists often operate,” explained Dr. Rahman Abd-El-Barr, a pediatric urologist with Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida.
The DaVinci robot is a robotic platform that allows surgeons to do minimally invasive surgery, leaving patients with smaller incisions and a quicker recovery. “This is important because it allows us to minimize recovery time, pain, bleeding with surgery, and especially with kids, it helps them to get back on their feet right away,” he said.
So when high school athlete, Reagan Rebeor found out she needed to have kidney surgery, she decided to have it robotically. “Thankfully, I did that because if not, I would have had a long scar down my stomach instead of small holes, small incisions. I had pain for three days, three or four days. Then after that, I was fine,” she said.
While it’s not an option for all pediatric surgeries, doctors say it can be very beneficial for teenage and adult patients needing reconstructive surgery. An option that allows patients a quicker and easier recovery.
View More Health Matters video segments at LeeHealth.org/Healthmatters/
Lee Health in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of health care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For more than 100 years, we’ve been providing our community with personalized preventative health services and primary care to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries. Lee Health - Caring People. Inspiring Care.
Visit LeeHealth.org
Sex reassignment surgery for male-to-female involves reshaping the male genitals into a form with the appearance of, and, as far as possible, the function of female genitalia. Prior to any surgeries, patients usually undergo hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and, depending on the age at which HRT begins, facial hair removal. There are associated surgeries patients may elect to, including facial feminization surgery, breast augmentation, and various other procedures
To record the sequence, Stephan Gordts and Ivo Brosens of the Leuven Institute for Fertility & Embryology in Belgium performed transvaginal laparoscopy, which involves making a small cut in the vaginal wall and observing the ovary with an endoscope.
"This allows us direct access to and observation of the tubo-ovarian structures without manipulation using forceps," says Gordts.
For the photos of ovulation, which only accidentally captured the critical moment, Jacques Donnez at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) in Brussels, Belgium, used gas to distend the organs for photography. However, Gordts and Brosens planned the procedure to coincide with ovulation and used saline solution to "float" the structures.
Perfect timing
Observation was timed for the day of the peak of the patient's luteal hormone cycle. Ovulation was predicted to occur on the evening of the day of the LH peak, and the endoscope introduced at 6 pm.
A small amount of saline was used to float the opening of the fallopian tube, its fimbriae (the "fingers" that sweep the egg into the tube) and the ovary itself. This gives a more natural appearance than gas, says Gordts.
In the video, the fimbriae can be seen sweeping in time with the patient's heartbeat. A mucus plug can be seen protruding from the ovary – this contains the egg.
"The ovum is not captured 'naked'," says Gordts. "There is no eruption like a volcano."
Gordts says that in clinical practice it is not easy to organise the observation of ovulation. "We were probably lucky to be successful at our first attempt," he says.
A Cesarean section (C-section) is surgery to deliver a baby. The baby is taken out through the mother's abdomen. In the United States, almost one in three women has their babies this way. Some C-sections are planned, but many are done when unexpected problems happen during delivery. Reasons for a C-section may include Health problems in the mother The mother carrying more than one baby The size or position of the baby The baby's health is in danger Labor is not moving along as it should
Kendall Lee, M.D., describes deep brain stimulation surgery, and how it is is typically done with patients who remain awake, so neurological functions can be measured and maintained. For more information on deep brain stimulation, visit http://mayocl.in/2A09T80.