Vol. V, No. 9Archive > September, 2004

Troubleshooting Your Laparoscope's Hitches and Glitches

Readers share their tips for fixing everything from fog to flickering monitors.

Dianne Taylor, Contributing Editor

You're in the middle of a laparoscopic procedure. Suddenly, the picture is flickering, and the screen goes blank. Now what?

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Problems such as flickering, blurring, distortion, fog and blank monitors not only delay surgery, extend anesthesia time and increase stress but also, in the worst of cases, can lead to iatrogenic injury. Almost half (48 percent) of the responders to an Outpatient Surgery survey (n=60) say they experience laparoscopy problems "occasionally" and another 11 percent say they deal with them "regularly." We asked a panel of our readers to share their best troubleshooting tips.

 
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