open vs. laparoscopic

I see that some people still do open surgery. Is it because their doc doesn't do laparoscopic or is there another benefit that I don't know about ??

Sometimes there is too much old scar tissue from past surgeries for them to do it laparoscopic. Other times there are unexpected complications and the surgeon have to open you up.  Both ways get the jobs done, you just heal up faster with the laparoscopic and don't have to spend as much time in the hospital or recovering.

Some surgeons (like mine) can do both lap and open but simply prefer open surgery because they have better access to everything and there is a much smaller chance of nicking the liver when raising it up  and trying to keep it out of the way (which, apparently, can be a very serious complication when it happens).

Some people start out with lap surgery but have to be converted to open (which means they end up with both the large open incision and the small lap incisions) because the surgeon runs into something unexpected.

Also, some people have medical issues or a previous surgical history that makes laparoscopic surgery difficult or undesirable.

Lora 

Everything Laura said...