What is Minimal Access Surgery?
Minimal access surgery is completed with one or more small incisions instead of a large incision. The surgeon passes a telescope with a video camera through a small incision (usually only 1/4? long) into a body cavity. The surgeon then views the surgery on a TV monitor. Surgical instruments are then passed through other similar little incisions. The surgeon examines and operates on the area in question by viewing magnified images on a television. When the telescope is used to operate on the abdomen, the procedure is called laparoscopy. When used in the chest, the procedure is called thoracoscopy, and when used in a joint, it is called arthroscopy.
Minimal Access Surgery (MAS) refers to a specialized form of surgery that allows surgeons to operate without making large incisions as are done in traditional (open) surgery. As MAS is carried out with the help of tiny incisions, patients have less postoperative pain, spend shorter time in the hospital and recover significantly faster than after open surgery. Today, experts can perform almost 70% of abdominal operations using MAS.
Minimal Access Surgery offers several benefits
- Less Pain
- Quick recovery
- Better cosmesis
- Shorter hospital stay
- Fewer complications
- Better Clinical Outcome
- Early return to work
- Early return to normal activity