Awareness and better facilities double laparoscopic surgeries at ICH in a year

While 135 laparoscopic surgeries were performed in 2017, it spiked to almost a double of 276 surgeries in 2018.

Doctors said that patients prefer laparoscopic surgeries over open surgeries after a greater number of successful surgeries were recorded at the government hospital.

The hospital got six laparoscopic surgery sets last year and this has equipped the hospital to perform several more surgeries, especially at the paediatric surgery department. Hospital authorities said that there was a staff crunch in four units of the hospital in 2017. However, last year, chief doctors were appointed for all the vacancies in the paediatric surgery department by the State Health Department.

“The number of trained doctors and assistants for laparoscopic surgeries at the hospital has increased in last one year. More medicos are getting trained in this stream to be able to do laparoscopic surgeries as these have rendered better outcomes. This has helped to improve the quantity and quality of the surgical operations being undertaken at the hospital,” said paediatric surgeon Dr Mohan Kumar.

The head of the Department of Paediatric Surgery at ICH, Dr Muthu Kumar, said that many more laparoscopic surgeries could be undertaken with the support of the kin of the patients.

“There was a lack of awareness among patients about the efficacy of laparoscopic surgeries. As we received more positive results of better quality of life, we could gain the confidence of patients and their families. People have gradually become aware that laparoscopic surgery is less painful over conventional open surgery. The recovery is also faster,” he added.