Show - -- -- — 4' 1 lit 4 1 4 4 i i 4 - 2 Through four punctures in his patient's abdomen Dr Avram Cooperman hi of St Clarets Hospital in New York manipulates instruments to remove a malfunctioning gaChladder A tiny camera catches each of his moves and displays them on the IV monitor he's watching 2 1 - E 'i - it A irPh ! 4 ' - c vt: "" 4 1 ' a T : ' 4 f f ' ft Surgery by re 5 video camera N ' 4 -- is taking tile i)ain 410' : a''' — i ' T - 1 I f cmci 1 IP ' 4 0 ' 4C- i i ts4 i -- - ' or trauma 1 ' ' 14 er i 11 1 I " ) ons - out of a host ) ) r -- ( of medical - '- 1 e''' I I procethlres III 0 ruld nu gMED - I THIN 1- 1 t 1 1 k i ili EARL IIIIII 811 BY - YEARS A TINY Te Hhells EruEm yV camera ed the world of s g 1 inside out allowing doctors to see inside their patients' abdominal or chest cavities without having to cut them open Surgery on the organs in either cavity now can be done without massively invading the patients' flesh bones nerves and muscles With video surgery there are only three or four small wounds which generally heal without ugly scars and are small enough to be covered by a Band-Ai- d Rather than having to spend an expensive week or more in the hospital and a painful month recovering a patient often returns home the same day and is back to work in a week Bbeecnaeusedthheasdoceutrofir A F li vu hea:hnsootmcuitnmimualsclyle or the convalescent suffers little of the pain that savages people who post-operati- have undergone major abdominal or chest surgery performed in the traditional way Consequently no heavy doses of drugs for pain relief are needed Brian Mendelson 53 of Reistertown Md owns an automobile repair shop in Baltimore Here's how he benefited from the new video surgery in late 1990: "It was the day after Thanksgiving" he relates "I had pains in the stomach—really bad pains Two days later I was almost dead I could not walk I had no strength I was sweating The pains were getting worse" 4r1t1 El 0 The cause of all this proved to be his gallbladder In search of help Mendelson found his way to Dr Robert Bailey an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore Dr Bailey was one of the first physicians in the United States to try the new video surgery method Through a small hole in Mendelson's midriff Bailey removed the gallbladder Mendelson says he had little postoperative pain and adds "I went back to work in one week I had only four small incisions but I've talked to other patients who had conventional gallbladder surgery that left them with 8- inch scars They took at least six weeks PAGE 4 JANUARY 12 1992 PARADE MAGAZINE |