Laparoscopic Hysterectomy

Baptist Health La Grange: Laparoscopic Hysterectomy

Gynecologist Matthew McDanald, MD, explains the types of hysterectomies and the reasons they might be necessary, describing laparoscopic surgery and its advantages over traditional surgery.

Laparoscopic Hysterectomy HealthTalks Transcript

Matthew McDanald, MD, Obstetrics & Gynecology
There are lots of types of hysterectomies. There are types where you remove just the uterus and leave the cervix behind. There are laparoscopic hysterectomies. There are hysterectomies where you make an incision through the abdomen as well, called an abdominal hysterectomy. Hysterectomies are performed for a vast number of reasons. Abnormal bleeding is very common. Tumors of the uterus or ovaries are very common, fibroids being the most common of those tumors. A laparoscopic hysterectomy is where we make three small incisions in the abdominal wall and use a television camera on a two-dimension television screen to perform the hysterectomy laparoscopically. The surgery itself takes about one hour. The uterus is removed through the vagina, and therefore there are no abdominal wall incisions like the traditional open abdominal hysterectomy. In La Grange, we started our laparoscopic hysterectomy program eight years ago. Since that time, we have performed hundreds and hundreds of these surgeries here on sight, here in La Grange. Benefits of laparoscopic hysterectomy are less pain, quicker return to normal activities, and a shorter hospital stay. Traditionally, recovery time for abdominal hysterectomy is four to six weeks. It’s usually about a three-day hospital stay. Now that we’ve become more advanced and are performing laparoscopic hysterectomies, we have that recovery time down to about two weeks, usually with only an overnight stay in the hospital.