Often, when a person hears “surgery” from their provider, they worry or get concerned. But thanks to modern advances in technology, research, and surgical techniques, there are more options that make it a more welcoming conversation.
With the development of minimally invasive procedures to treat a wide variety of ailments, injuries, and chronic conditions, patients have options – and more health benefits. Now, instead of having to open a patient’s abdomen, surgeons can use cutting-edge imaging equipment, endoscopes, laparoscopic graspers, and robotic tools to operate through the tiniest incisions.
Minimally invasive surgery, also known as keyhole surgery, results in less pain, fewer complications, less incidental damage, a faster recovery, and a better overall health outcome for a wide range of procedures – from appendectomies to hernia repair to brain surgery. But while smaller scars and shorter hospital stays are plusses for anyone undergoing surgery, the minimally invasive option also offers unique benefits for patients receiving specific treatments.
At UPMC, world-renowned experts use the latest laparoscopic technology, methods, and techniques to treat patients. Three UPMC in Central Pa. surgeons share how minimally invasive surgery works wonders for patients in their operating rooms.
Cardiovascular Surgery
The heart is the center of everything, just like the engine of the car. If you keep the engine healthy, the car can go. You can put on the best tires, hang fuzzy dice, and change the air freshener, but if the engine isn’t maintained, the car is not going to function,” he says.
Discover how UPMC in Central Pa. Surgeons Use Minimally Invasive Surgery for Various Conditions
August 2024
David Loran, MD
Cardiothoracic Surgeon
Dialysis or Kidney Transplant? The Pros and Cons of Each
Thurs., May 4, 6 p.m.
Get your questions answered by our expert panel: a cardiologist, interventional cardiologist, and electrophysiologist. Learn more about potentially life-saving, noninvasive tests.
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Tues., May 9, 6:30 p.m.
BMI, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, hemoglobin A1C, what do these numbers tell us? UPMC experts are prepared to help you understand these numbers, so you can optimize your health and prevent stroke and other health issues.
Stroke Prevention: Know and Understand Your Numbers
Interview with:
Timothy Bolden, UPMC patient
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Migala driving an RG33.
Urinary Incontinence
Recurrent UTIs
Overactive Bladder
Prolapse
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Colorectal cancer is the third most common type of cancer in the United States, excluding skin cancers. It’s also the second leading cause of death from cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. When found early, colorectal cancer often can be cured.
Pregnancy After Bariatric Surgery
Read More
Eating Out After Bariatric Surgery
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Importance of Specialty Care
A Multidisciplinary Approach
Improving Quality of Life
Importance of Specialty Care
Migala driving an RG33.
Interview with:
Timothy Bolden,
UPMC patient
Minimally invasive surgery has been nothing short of a game-changer when it comes to heart surgery. Open-heart surgery can now often be accomplished with several smaller incisions.
At UPMC in Central Pa., about 60 to 70% of cardiac procedures are done using minimally invasive techniques. For example, a coronary artery bypass can now be performed using the da Vinci surgical robot to help mobilize and connect the replacement artery through a small incision on the left side of the chest. This approach allows for faster and improved recovery for the patient, so UPMC’s cardiovascular surgeons often partner with cardiologists to make it a hybrid procedure in which the patient returns a day or two later to receive a stent in any other points of blockage.
“The patient gets the best bypass we can offer, plus a nice simple stent to one of the other blood vessels,” says David Loran, MD, chief of UPMC Cardiovascular Surgery in Central Pa.”
.
UPMC surgeons can also perform a valve repair or complete valve replacement through a 2- to 3-centimenter incision on the right side of the chest. The result is that the patient can often leave the hospital days earlier than with a traditional surgery and get back to work in about half the time.
Perhaps most importantly, when it comes to heart surgery, the shorter the time on the operating table, the shorter the time the patient must be on a ventilator.
“We try to remove the breathing tube as soon as we can,” says Dr. Loran. “So, this type of surgery makes it easier for us to remove sooner than we would otherwise.”
YOUR DRIVING FORCE
“I cannot change your gender, age, or your genes, but I will happily address smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol,” he says. “A patient may talk about bad genes, but I say let's work on the things we can alter.”
Read More
Colorectal cancer is the third most common type of cancer in the United States, excluding skin cancers. It’s also the second leading cause of death from cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. When found early, colorectal cancer often can be cured.
Minimally Invasive Shoulder Surgery: What You Need to Know
Listen Here
Podcast Interview with
Dr. Sulang Rosado
Read More
Colorectal cancer is the third most common type of cancer in the United States, excluding skin cancers. It’s also the second leading cause of death from cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. When found early, colorectal cancer often can be cured.
Missing Sleep
Could Affect Your
Heart Health
The Stages of Sleep
Often, when a person hears “surgery” from their provider, they worry or get concerned. But thanks to modern advances in technology, research, and surgical techniques, there are more options that make it a more welcoming conversation.
With the development of minimally invasive procedures to treat a wide variety of ailments, injuries, and chronic conditions, patients have options – and more health benefits. Now, instead of having to open a patient’s abdomen, surgeons can use cutting-edge imaging equipment, endoscopes, laparoscopic graspers, and robotic tools to operate through the tiniest incisions.
Minimally invasive surgery, also known as keyhole surgery, results in less pain, fewer complications, less incidental damage, a faster recovery, and a better overall health outcome for a wide range of procedures – from appendectomies to hernia repair to brain surgery. But while smaller scars and shorter hospital stays are plusses for anyone undergoing surgery, the minimally invasive option also offers unique benefits for patients receiving specific treatments.
At UPMC, world-renowned experts use the latest laparoscopic technology, methods, and techniques to treat patients. Three UPMC in Central Pa. surgeons share how minimally invasive surgery works wonders for patients in their operating rooms.
Minimally invasive surgery has been nothing short of a game-changer when it comes to heart surgery. Open-heart surgery can now often be accomplished with several smaller incisions.
At UPMC in Central Pa., about 60 to 70% of cardiac procedures are done using minimally invasive techniques. For example, a coronary artery bypass can now be performed using the da Vinci surgical robot to help mobilize and connect the replacement artery through a small incision on the left side of the chest. This approach allows for faster and improved recovery for the patient, so UPMC’s cardiovascular surgeons often partner with cardiologists to make it a hybrid procedure in which the patient returns a day or two later to receive a stent in any other points of blockage.
“The patient gets the best bypass we can offer, plus a nice simple stent to one of the other blood vessels,” says David Loran, MD, chief of UPMC Cardiovascular Surgery in Central Pa.”
.
UPMC surgeons can also perform a valve repair or complete valve replacement through a 2- to 3-centimenter incision on the right side of the chest. The result is that the patient can often leave the hospital days earlier than with a traditional surgery and get back to work in about half the time.
Perhaps most importantly, when it comes to heart surgery, the shorter the time on the operating table, the shorter the time the patient must be on a ventilator.
“We try to remove the breathing tube as soon as we can,” says Dr. Loran. “So, this type of surgery makes it easier for us to remove sooner than we would otherwise.”
Listen Here
Podcast Interview with
Dr. Sulang Rosado
Read More
Colorectal cancer is the third most common type of cancer in the United States, excluding skin cancers. It’s also the second leading cause of death from cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. When found early, colorectal cancer often can be cured.
Learn About the Minimally Invasive Carpal Tunnel Procedure at UPMC
Read More
Colorectal cancer is the third most common type of cancer in the United States, excluding skin cancers. It’s also the second leading cause of death from cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. When found early, colorectal cancer often can be cured.
Learn About the Minimally Invasive Carpal Tunnel Procedure at UPMC
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Half of it should consist of fruits and vegetables, preferably fresh, but there’s nothing wrong with frozen or canned veggies (just rinse off the sodium-rich juice from the canned varieties).
A quarter of the plate should be whole grains — whole-wheat bread, brown rice, whole-wheat pasta, or even corn (an under-recognized whole grain).
The remaining quarter should consist of lean protein, like chicken breast, fish, nuts, beans, eggs, or plant-based proteins like tofu.
For a treat, throw in a side of dairy, preferably low-fat, like yogurt, skim milk, or a bit of cheese.
Drink plenty of water. Stay away from sweetened beverages; instead, opt for unsweetened tea, black coffee, and flavored water.
Surgical oncology is a specialized field of surgery that focuses on the surgical procedures used to diagnose, manage, prevent, and treat many different types of cancer. With various surgical approaches to the management of cancer, including tumor ablation and minimally invasive surgery, such as robotic surgery and intra-peritoneal delivery of chemotherapy, the surgical oncologist offers the best chance of treatment for cancer patients. The principal focus is to ensure a complete and comprehensive removal of the cancer.
At UPMC Hillman Cancer Center in Central Pa., Samer AlMasri, MD is a surgical oncologist who is particularly adept at offering minimally invasive surgery to treat tumors and other conditions mainly of the pancreas and liver. One example is robotic-assisted pancreaticoduodenectomy — or more commonly known as the Whipple “procedure”. It is a complex operation, in which the surgeon uses small-cut techniques and robotic assistance to remove tumors from the head of the pancreas, bile ducts or duodenum before the tumor spreads to other organs.
“Traditionally, this is one of the biggest abdominal operations, with the open approach taking eight or nine hours and a prolonged hospital stay,” says Dr. AlMasri. “With robotic surgery, surgery can be performed in a minimally invasive fashion and have a significant improvement in the short-term perioperative outcomes. Patients have a quicker return to their baseline functioning and a much shorter hospital stay.”
Shorter recovery time is particularly important for cancer patients because surgery is typically the first step of their long journey back to health.
“When recovery is quicker – and with less pain and fewer complications – we can get them to chemotherapy much sooner,” says Dr. AlMasri.
Surgical Oncology
Obstetrics and Gynecology
It’s not difficult to understand the advantages of minimally invasive surgery when it comes to a person’s health. For patients who qualify for these procedures, there’s little downside to less pain, less hospital time (and therefore less expense), fewer complications, and a faster recovery.
But when it comes to obstetrics and gynecology, there’s another benefit to this type of surgery: convenience.
Thus far, patients with those conditions mentioned have little choice but to undergo surgery. Their life urgently depends on removal of that tumor or replacement of that heart valve. But the relative ease of these shorter, less grueling surgeries is also a draw for women who might be putting off “elective procedures” that could save them in the long run.
“For so long, I’ve seen women delay care,” says Chavone Momon-Nelson, DO, a certified obstetrician and gynecologist with UPMC Magee-Womens in Central Pa. “Women are always the ones taking care of everyone else in the family. They don’t think they can take this time off and be unavailable to their jobs and families. And while they delay care, they sometimes grow anemic and tired because of an underlying condition.”
For example, Dr. Momon-Nelson says she’s seen great success with minimally invasive techniques for hysterectomies. This is the removal of the uterus, which is one of the most common surgeries among women. Instead of a three-hour surgery, extensive blood loss, three to five days in the hospital, and eight to 12 weeks recovery time, the patient undergoing a laparoscopic procedure (vaginally or with three to four small incisions in the abdomen) might go home the same day.
Dr. Momon-Nelson points out that, regardless of the surgery, less pain and shorter recovery also mean less dependence on pain relievers after the operation.
“Previously, I had to use a large incision, cutting through skin and muscle and ligaments, which take a long time to heal,” says Dr. Momon-Nelson. “I’d have to send patients home with narcotic pain medicine for the prolonged pain. Now, their biggest complaint is gas pain.”
For more information about surgical procedures at UPMC in Central Pa., please visit upmc.com/services/south-central-pa/surgery/procedures.
Watch this video to learn more about minimally invasive surgery.
•
•
•
•
•
Half of it should consist of fruits and vegetables, preferably fresh, but there’s nothing wrong with frozen or canned veggies (just rinse off the sodium-rich juice from the canned varieties).
A quarter of the plate should be whole grains — whole-wheat bread, brown rice, whole-wheat pasta, or even corn (an under-recognized whole grain).
The remaining quarter should consist of lean protein, like chicken breast, fish, nuts, beans, eggs, or plant-based proteins like tofu.
For a treat, throw in a side of dairy, preferably low-fat, like yogurt, skim milk, or a bit of cheese.
Drink plenty of water. Stay away from sweetened beverages; instead, opt for unsweetened tea, black coffee, and flavored water.
Watch this video to learn more about minimally invasive surgery.
Back to the
basics of nutrition
Surgical oncology is a specialized field of surgery that focuses on the surgical procedures used to diagnose, manage, prevent, and treat many different types of cancer. With various surgical approaches to the management of cancer, including tumor ablation and minimally invasive surgery, such as robotic surgery and intra-peritoneal delivery of chemotherapy, the surgical oncologist offers the best chance of treatment for cancer patients. The principal focus is to ensure a complete and comprehensive removal of the cancer.
At UPMC Hillman Cancer Center in Central Pa., Samer AlMasri, MD is a surgical oncologist who is particularly adept at offering minimally invasive surgery to treat tumors and other conditions mainly of the pancreas and liver. One example is robotic-assisted pancreaticoduodenectomy — or more commonly known as the Whipple “procedure”. It is a complex operation, in which the surgeon uses small-cut techniques and robotic assistance to remove tumors from the head of the pancreas, bile ducts or duodenum before the tumor spreads to other organs.
“Traditionally, this is one of the biggest abdominal operations, with the open approach taking eight or nine hours and a prolonged hospital stay,” says Dr. AlMasri. “With robotic surgery, surgery can be performed in a minimally invasive fashion and have a significant improvement in the short-term perioperative outcomes. Patients have a quicker return to their baseline functioning and a much shorter hospital stay.”
Shorter recovery time is particularly important for cancer patients because surgery is typically the first step of their long journey back to health.
“When recovery is quicker – and with less pain and fewer complications – we can get them to chemotherapy much sooner,” says Dr. AlMasri.
Nutrition is key
for quality of life
It’s not difficult to understand the advantages of minimally invasive surgery when it comes to a person’s health. For patients who qualify for these procedures, there’s little downside to less pain, less hospital time (and therefore less expense), fewer complications, and a faster recovery.
But when it comes to obstetrics and gynecology, there’s another benefit to this type of surgery: convenience.
Thus far, patients with those conditions mentioned have little choice but to undergo surgery. Their life urgently depends on removal of that tumor or replacement of that heart valve. But the relative ease of these shorter, less grueling surgeries is also a draw for women who might be putting off “elective procedures” that could save them in the long run.
“For so long, I’ve seen women delay care,” says Chavone Momon-Nelson, DO, a certified obstetrician and gynecologist with UPMC Magee-Womens in Central Pa. “Women are always the ones taking care of everyone else in the family. They don’t think they can take this time off and be unavailable to their jobs and families. And while they delay care, they sometimes grow anemic and tired because of an underlying condition.”
For example, Dr. Momon-Nelson says she’s seen great success with minimally invasive techniques for hysterectomies. This is the removal of the uterus, which is one of the most common surgeries among women. Instead of a three-hour surgery, extensive blood loss, three to five days in the hospital, and eight to 12 weeks recovery time, the patient undergoing a laparoscopic procedure (vaginally or with three to four small incisions in the abdomen) might go home the same day.
Dr. Momon-Nelson points out that, regardless of the surgery, less pain and shorter recovery also mean less dependence on pain relievers after the operation.
“Previously, I had to use a large incision, cutting through skin and muscle and ligaments, which take a long time to heal,” says Dr. Momon-Nelson. “I’d have to send patients home with narcotic pain medicine for the prolonged pain. Now, their biggest complaint is gas pain.”
For more information about surgical procedures at UPMC in Central Pa., please visit upmc.com/services/south-central-pa/surgery/procedures.
Interview with:
Erica Hornung, RD, Outpatient Clinical
Nutrition Manager, UPMC in Central Pa.
Chavone Momon-Nelson, DO
Obstetrics and Gynecology Physician
Samer AlMasri, MD
Surgical Oncologist
Interview with:
David Loran, MD
Cardiothoracic Surgeon