What Is Minimally Invasive Surgery?
If your OBGYN says that you need to have a surgical procedure done, they may tell you that it can be done as a minimally invasive surgery. You may only hear the word surgery in there and worry that you will be in for a lot of pain and a long recovery time. However, if you are going to have a minimally invasive surgery done, those things aren't necessarily true. It can give you a lot of peace of mind to know more about what makes a surgical procedure minimally invasive.
Minimal Invasive Surgery
These procedures are designed to penetrate the body as little as possible. The incisions are as small as possible and as unobtrusive as possible. For example, traditional hysterectomies involve incisions that span the abdomen either from hip to hip or from the belly button down. However, it is possible to do a hysterectomy as a minimally invasive surgery. The surgery is usually robot-assisted because the tools are smaller, and the robot lets the doctor manipulate them better. Instead of one long incision across the abdomen, the incisions tend to be small, generally around an inch. The doctor may have to make two or three incisions and will try to hide one in the belly button.
Shorter Healing Time
Your doctor will use one of these procedures because the healing time will be much shorter and much easier for you. Instead of having to cut through several layers of fat and muscle and then suturing them all back together, small incisions are made right over the area. While they still have to go through fat and muscle, the incisions are much smaller, which means less trauma to the tissue and much easier repairs. Healing two or three incisions that are only an inch or so across instead of a large incision that is several inches across will take much less time, and it won't be nearly as painful for you. You will also have functionality back sooner. If you have traditional abdominal surgery, you are limited in what you can do while healing since too much stress on the healing area can disrupt those muscles. That can take weeks of healing time.
If your doctor says you need to have a surgical procedure done, see if they can do it as a minimally invasive surgery because there are a lot of benefits to a minimally invasive procedure.