thing else is pretty
much standard stuff.
You might need a bent
grasper, one that actu-
ally comes bent," he
adds. "That's helpful
for doing cholecystec-
tomies. But it's
reusable. You have to
use a grasper anyway,
so why not use a bent one?"
And the LESS technique is appropriate for just about any laparo-
scopic abdominal operation, says Dr. Rosemurgy, "from colon surgery,
to adrenal surgery, to anti-reflux surgery, to cholecystectomies — just
about anything."
Patients are receptive from the get-go, he adds, "but they don't really
get a sense of it until it's over. Then they say, 'Wow, this is great.'"
2
Microlaparoscopic surgery
Microlaparoscopy (also called minilaparoscopy) also repre-
sents a step up from standard lap, says Aurora Pryor, MD, vice
chair for clinical affairs and chief of bariatric, foregut and advanced
GI surgery at the Stony Brook University School of Medicine in New
York. With tools that range in thickness from about 2.7 mm to about
3.5 mm (or roughly one-ninth of an inch), "you get smaller incisions,
less pain and less hernia risk," says Dr. Pryor. "And it's better cosmeti-
cally."
It also represents a shorter, easier step up from conventional laps
than single-site surgery. "It's the same setup as you're used to with
standard laparoscopy," says Dr. Pryor, "so you don't have to modify
8 8
O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 5
z LESS IS MORE With tools roughly one ninth of
an inch thick, microlaporoscopy results in less pain
and better cosmesis than standard laparoscopy.
