Laparoscopic procedures

Laparoscopic procedures (versus laparotomy) have become the primary standard of care for endometriosis surgery because of lower... 

A systematic review concluded that conservative laparoscopic procedures are superior to watchful waiting in treating the pain of minimal, mild, and moderate endometriosis. Approximately 60% to 100% of affected women will obtain relief of pain from surgery, but up to 44% of women will experience recurrence of symptoms at... 

The intentional sparks produced by these machines have also been blamed in a number of surgical drape fires. The high-frequency nature of these therapeutic electrical waveforms also makes it easier for them to become capacitively coupled to other tissue or conductive pathways. Burns due to such coupling and/or insulation failures during laparoscopic procedures are often the result. Since such burns are usually outside the surgeon s visual field, they often go untreated. 

RAVEN [43,44], designed by University of Washington and University of California Santa Cruz, is a tele-operated surgical robot for laparoscopic procedures (Figure 5.14). The system consists of two slave RCM arms that are mounted by roU-pitch-yaw cable-driven surgical tools delivering a total of 6 DOFs. The RCM arms are spherical mechanisms that create a mechanically locked RCM at the port location. The tool has a roll-pitch-yaw mechanism and is 10 mm in diameter. 

Probably the most obvious way to reduce the development of persistent post-operative pain is to utilize surgical techniques that avoid damage to major nerves. In inguinal hernia repair, laparoscopic procedures as opposed to open procedures where possible can possibly reduce the risk of nerve injury. In addition, lightweight mesh may reduce the inflammatory response following surgery although, as noted above, some... 

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