Minimal Invasive surgery

Minimal Invasive surgery, also called keyhole surgery, minor access surgery, and laparoscopic surgery has been used in practice since the 1990’s. It is surgery using medical equipment inserted into the body though a small incision in the skin to perform the actual operation, rather than invasive techniques that require wide openings in the body. The equipment for minimal invasive surgery includes endoscopes or laparoscopes having fiber optic cables, small cameras connected to monitors in the operating room, and medical surgical instruments that are inserted into the body through a small tube a few centimeters in diameter. Minimal invasive surgery is used by surgeons in many branches of surgery including abdominal, neurological and other procedures such as correcting joints such as the hip or knee.

Minimal Invasive surgery is less traumatic for the body as it requires fewer incisions and leaves less scar tissue. The operations may be longer in duration than open surgeries, but the hospital stay is shorter because minimal invasive surgery produces less trauma requiring less—therefore shorter—healing.

Minimal invasive surgery requires special training and a strong teamwork to deal with the equipment and procedures required by this type of surgery. Of course the team is capable of switching at any time to normal invasive surgical procedures if necessary. This may be required in situations where the technical limits of minimal invasive surgery are reached without being able to complete the surgery, something that cannot be foretold prior to the operation. However, surgical requirements generally allow minimal invasive procedures to be used throughout an entire surgery. All risks and requirements are of course discussed with each patient prior to their operation.

The primary advantage to minimal invasive surgery as practiced by a specialist such as myself is that we can offer alternatives to blood transfusion (see Transfusion Alternatives). This is an option that requires a high degree of specialization, and is not usual in this area. Minimal invasive surgery can often be performed entirely without blood transfusions using specialized methods and procedures of blood conservation. Very few physicians are qualified in this area in Munich.