Are half a million gallbladders being removed in the United States every year? Are too many patients walking away with several small scars as evidence of the procedure? Will patients emerge from the operating table nearly unscathed, with no scar or just a single incision in the bellybutton?
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…Suffering from his third gallbladder attack in two months, 37-year-old Vincent Ferrara walked into the Kennedy Memorial Hospital emergency room in Washington Township on a Sunday afternoon. Five days later, surgeons were scrubbing in to watch Dr. Larry Cohen and Dr. Marc Neff perform the first Single-Incision Laparoscopic Surgery in South Jersey, according to Kennedy Memorial Hospital officials.
Prior to his hospital visit, Ferrara said he suffered from severe abdominal pain, “the type of pain that puts you in the fetal position,” he said.
The gallbladder is a small pear-shaped organ in the abdomen. It stores and releases bile, which helps in digestion of fats. Gallstones can form when bile crystallizes and becomes solid, causing pain when the gallbladder tries to push out liquid bile through stone-blocked ducts.
Not all patients with gallbladder conditions require surgery, and although fried, greasy, and fatty foods are incriminating in bringing on symptoms, Cohen said people with bland diets can also suffer from gallstones.
Other symptoms include severe pain or aching in the upper abdomen that may come and go or be constant, a dull ache beneath the ribs or breastbone, back pain, heartburn or vomiting, pain after eating, and pain that goes through the shoulder blades…
Older methods of removing the gallbladder involved open surgery, leaving the patient with a large scar on their upper abdomen, or more modern methods of laparoscopic surgery with three to four small incisions, leaving behind three or four small scars…
He qualified for Single-Incision Laparoscopic Surgery to remove the gallbladder through his navel. Candidates for the surgery must not have liver disease, fluid in the abdomen or stones in the bile duct, according to Cohen. Any prior upper abdominal surgery will also disqualify them for the surgery…
Once the small incision is made, surgeons insert three tube-like trocars that guide surgical instruments into the abdominal cavity, including a tiny laparoscopic camera that transmits video of the gallbladder area to high-definition monitors in the operating room…
According to Ferrara, a respiratory therapist, his recovery from the same-day surgery was smooth and quick…
Cohen explained that during laparoscopic surgery, the abdomen is inflated with carbon dioxide, and can irritate the diaphragm, causing shoulder pain.
Unlike older methods of gallbladder removal that kept patients off their feet for five to 10 days, Ferrara said he was home the next day, and “up and around the house with no problems,” just a few days after the procedure.