New Delhi, July 10: The humble navel has been an onscreen scorcher in many Bollywood and south Indian movies but now, the belly button is all set to don a more responsible role - the scarless route to treat common abdominal conditions like appendix, gall bladder stones and the weight loss bariatric surgery.
Surgeons in Delhi will for the first time in Asia Pacific use what is called a 'spider technology' — a single flexible laparoscopy instrument that will do away with the need for five incisions or scars for any abdominal intervention.
Instead, the rod like machine will enter through the belly button and open up like an umbrella within the abdomen, providing the surgeon with several instruments with 360-degree range of motion along with small cameras.
Once the procedure is completed, the system closes up and is removed through the same incision.
Dr Pradeep Chowbey, who heads the Max Institute of Minimal Access, Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, will conduct the surgery on Tuesday. He said the greatest benefit is that there will be no visible scar because the 'spider' enters the abdomen through a small puncture at the navel.
In conventional laparoscopic surgery, surgeons place multiple incisions (five scars) in various parts of the abdomen in order to utilize several specialized instruments to achieve the necessary angles and access critical anatomical areas.
"This new technology is also hygienic as the instrument is disposable and for every new patient, a new instrument is used. This technology has not been used in Asia Pacific before," Dr Chowbey said.
"This is a quantum jump from the rigid laproscope. The spider is a flexible operating platform which has multiple arms, each acting as a separate instrument. Earlier, for any abdominal surgery, we had to make 3-4 extra punctures for different instruments to go in, leaving multiple scars 5-10 mm in diameter. With the spider, the laproscopic surgery will be scar-less. The instrument will go in and open up like an umbrella. The different limbs have different function - one could be a holder, another a dissector and the other a clip applier," he added.
"Lesser scars will mean lesser pain. Patients who receive a spider surgical procedure may experience less scarring with the potential for limited post-operative pain and a fast recovery to normal activities. We will put a water proof dressing on the belly button after the instrument is taken out. There will be no stitches," Dr Chowbey said.
According to the doctor, getting operated with a spider technology will cost around Rs 30,000 more than a normal laproscopic surgery.
In the 1990s, many surgeons began transitioning certain procedures from large, open incisions to multiple, smaller incisions through laparoscopic surgery. The surgeons had to learn an entirely new technique for performing complex surgeries, but the benefits of less invasive procedures drove many surgeons to embrace this innovation.
A flexible laparoscopy (scar-less surgery) is a class of minimally invasive surgery that utilizes small, flexible instruments that are controlled by a surgeon often through a single site.
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