Expanding Outpatient Surgery
Same-day Colon Resection Becoming a Reality
Once the stuff of weeklong hospital stays and significant post-op pain, the colectomy has become a three-day affair thanks to laparoscopy. Virtually all colectomy patients are candidates for the laparoscopic technique; even so, it will take a couple weeks for patients to return to normal, says Garth H. Ballantyne, MD, FACS, FASCRS, the director of minimally invasive surgery at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. (In 5 percent of cases the surgeon may need to convert to an open procedure, he notes.)