Would you prefer minimally invasive surgery, if it were available?

Many patients who might benefit from minimally invasive, laparoscopic surgery instead of traditional "open surgery" are not given the option, according to a Johns Hopkins University surgeon.

Laparoscopy is a procedure in which a tube is placed through a small cut in your abdomen, near your navel. A tiny video camera (laparoscope) is inserted into the tube and used to see the inside of your pelvis and abdomen. Surgery can be performed with the guidance of the laparoscope and with additional, small incisions.

How much laparoscopy is used varies among hospitals; differences in patients don't account for that variation.

Are you a candidate?

Not all patients are candidates for laparoscopic procedures, which can be limited by widespread cancers or internal scarring. But those conditions represent a small minority of cases. The technique for the remainder of cases results in lower risk of complication rates and greater potential cost savings, according to the Johns Hopkins surgeon and his colleagues.

Surgical complications cost about $25 billion annually; more laparoscopic operations could help to reduce that amount.

What studies say

The findings, published in the journal BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal), are based on an examination of data from four common procedures: appendectomy (appendix removal), hysterectomy (removal of the uterus), colectomy (removal of all or part of the colon) and lung lobectomy (removal of part of the lung), at more than 1,000 hospitals.

The Johns Hopkins researchers found the risk of complications was substantially lower for laparoscopy than for all four procedures. The risk was one-third less for colectomy and more than halved for appendectomies.