HospiUpdate

Saifee Asia's 1st Single Port Bariatric Surgery

Dr Muffazal Lakdawala

Doctors at Saifee Hospital in Mumbai have performed Asia's first single-port laparoscopic bariatric (sleeve gastrectomy) surgery. The patient was a 30-year-old woman from Thiruvananthapuram who weighed 120 kilograms and suffered from sleep apnea, hypertension, joint pain and was a pre-diabetic. The procedure lasted a little over an hour. She was discharged the next day.

Sleeve gastrectomy is a surgical weight loss procedure in which the stomach is reduced to about 15 per cent of its original size by surgical removal of a large portion of the stomach. The stomach is stapled to form a sleeve, hence the name. The surgery leads to reduced food consumption, thereby resulting in quick and sustained weight loss. This irreversible procedure is performed laparoscopically.

Laparoscopic operations involve making three to five incisions that are no more than 2.5 cm large. However, in this minimally invasive single-port procedure, the surgeon operated through a single incision in the patient's belly not more than 2 cm in size. All the necessary surgical instruments and a camera were inserted through this incision. After surgery, there was no visible scar either. "For patients who want to minimise scarring, the single-port approach is a good option. Traditional laparoscopic surgery requires at least five incisions," says Dr Muffazal Lakdawala, who headed the team of surgeons.

"The single-port technique is more technically challenging because all the instruments are working from a very small area," said Dr Lakdawala, who is also Vice President, Obesity Surgery Society of India, adding, "Patients appreciate the cosmetic benefit of a virtually scarless procedure. One single incision also minimizes patient discomfort and shortens healing time."

EH News Bureau