Is mini-lap a difficult technique to master?
Dr. Novitsky: The techniques are nearly identical — you're just using
smaller instruments and incisions. Whether you use mini-lap depends on
the surgeon's skills, the patient's body habitus, and if the smaller tools
and incisions are appropriate for that procedure.
Dr. Reardon: Making the move to mini-lap from laparoscopy is fairly
easy, especially if you're converting to 3 mm instruments. I originally
started using mini-lap in 1996, after a rep brought in the technology
and asked if he thought I could use it. Funny enough, a gallbladder
case came into the hospital while the rep was there, and I asked if we
could test out the technology right away. That case went so smoothly
that we've now grown to use 2 mm and 3 mm instruments in nearly all
of our procedures.
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O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5
Yuri Novitsky, MD, FACS
Dr. Novitsky is a professor of sur-
gery, director of the Case
Comprehensive Hernia Center
and director of the advanced GI
surgery and MIS Fellowship at
University Hospitals Case Medical
Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
Patrick Reardon, MD, FACS
Dr. Reardon is the chief of mini-
mally invasive surgery and chief of
foregut surgery at Houston (Texas)
Methodist Hospital and professor
of clinical surgery at Weill Cornell
Medical College.
Paul G. Curcillo, II, MD,
FACS
Dr. Curcillo is the director of mini-
mally invasive surgical initiatives
and development at Fox Chase
Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Pa.
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