Keyhole Surgery

[danissa, LPN, LVN]

Hi Guys, just wondering...Keyhole surgery to remove the small bowel and part of the large bowel, would this usually present as three small (1 inch ish) wounds, and one great big (6-7 inch wound) ???

Is this really keyhole surgery, being that the fourth wound is so long????

[RN1989]

The three small wounds sound like they would be the usual punctures for laparoscopy. Not sure why they would call it a "keyhole" with a 6 inch incision though. Unless the thinking was that it was not an entire abdominal incision from xiphoid to pubis so that constituted calling it "keyhole".

[steelcityrn, RN]

Bowel resections I have seen were several smaller incisions and usually a longer one. To my knowledge, that is not done as keyhole. That is major surgery with a longer time for recovery than keyhole.

[GrumpyRN63, ADN, RN]

Sounds to me like a failed laparoscopy that was converted to an open laparotomy

[ewattsjt]

I don't know if this is what you are speaking of but our docs were doing one that they called a key hole. It was where they did a colon resection and anastomosis laparoscopic but they make a small incision (2 or 3 inches) in the lower left quadrant to pull the resected colon out. They have recently left this procedure and are now using a "gel port" and make it a hand assisted lap colon resection.

[ewattsjt]

Repost for some reason...

[CRNAGAL]

Never heard the term keyhole, but we do lap-assisted bowel resections with the gel port like Ewattsjt described. Usually just large enough to get a hand into, but sometimes they need to make the hole larger for better access. And occasionally, like Grumpy says, they fail and have to go open.