St. John Hospital and Medical Center surgeon, Abdelkader Hawasli, M.D., director of Laparoscopic Surgery &Minimally Invasive and Robotic Surgery, is the first in the Tri-County area to remove a gallbladder through a unique minimally invasive operation requiring only a single incision.
The procedure involves removing the gallbladder through a tiny ½-inch cut in the belly button rather than the traditional laparoscopic surgery that requires four incisions in the abdomen.
“This is a great advancement for our patients,” says Dr. Hawasli. “It means less scarring, providing the best cosmetic results because the incision is hidden and is hardly seen. It has the potential for potentially faster recovery times, less risk for infection, less risk for bleeding and less pain.”
Dr. Hawasli used specialized tools that included a flexible camera and an instrument to cut and suture that were developed for single-incision surgery. He says while the surgery is more challenging and can take longer time than the regular operation because of the skill needed to use the instrumentation, he says the technique can be standardized, and has the potential to transform the field of minimally invasive surgery.
Over the last three months Dr. Hawasli has been able to refine the technique and remove the gallbladder in under an hour, which is close to the time of the traditional method. “It is very important when a new technique emerges to make sure that both the benefits to patients and safety are maintained,” says Dr. Hawasli.
In order to achieve that, Dr. Hawasli is putting on several courses starting next month to teach surgeons, both locally and nationally, his refined technique.
In addition to gallbladder surgery, Dr. Hawasli has used this new surgical procedure for gastric bypass surgery for morbid obesity. He says it also has the potential to be used for other surgeries such as appendectomies and some hernia and colon surgeries.
Since 1989, St. John Hospital doctors have performed among the most variety and numbers of minimally invasive surgeries of any hospital in the state when they did the first gallbladder removal in Michigan.
