Today, one should not say Why Minimal Access Surgery ? but one should say Why not Minimal Access Surgery? The reason is clear that today first choice should be Minimal access surgery not conventional/open surgery. If someone is offered open surgery then one has right to know Why not Laparscopic Surgery.
In fact , in most of cases.there is no difference in the surgical procedure performed by conventional method or by laparoscopic method(MAS). In inguinal hernia surgery , access is different in two methods. In endoscopic urological surgeries access is through natural passage.
There are certain differences and MAS is superior to open surgery.
- In conventional i.e. open surgery big incisions are made while in MAS small incisions which later on are hardly visible.
- As small incisions are made and muscles are not cut so there is less blood loss and less pain.
- Bleeding during procedure is further reduced by use of special energy sources like harmonics and vessel sealer.
- Recovery is fast about one week in MAS as compared to 5-7 weeks or even more in open surgery.
- Hospital stay is less in MAS about 1-2 days as comapred to open surgery where stay is 7-10 days.
- Patient can return to his job early following MAS.
- There is less chance of infection in MAS while chance of infection is more in conventional surgery and as a result chance of incisional hernia increases.
- After MAS patient can climb stairs, lift heavy objects etc while after open surgery patient is advised to avoid such activities.
In short Mas leads to significantly lesser post operative pain, faster healing and minimum scarring. For patient , this means returning back to normal life at the earliest.