The team of the Clinical Center (KC), led by the head of the Center for Digestive Surgery, Ranko Lazović, performed independently and for the first time in Montenegro a laparoscopic operation of a colon tumor - one of the most complex in surgery.
"What we have done now is considered the crown jewel of laparoscopic abdominal surgery. I am especially proud that we from the Center for Digestive Surgery did it, without help from the floor, without consultants and without supervision," said Lazović. He explained that they were educated in clinical centers in Rijeka and Ljubljana and that the final course was in a hospital in Madrid.
The operation was performed on a tumor on the left side of the large intestine, where the patient, instead of a 50 to 60 centimeter incision, had only three stitches on the abdomen of ten millimeters each. "The patient gets up the next morning, starts drinking liquid, eats mushy food. He's fine now, he's fully fit to be fired tomorrow. We have implemented the method and the intention is to introduce it into routine practice," he said.
Patient Zdravko Dragaš from Pljevlja said that he feels great.
"The operation went perfectly. I am satisfied... The second day I got up, after the operation. I could play soccer and I don't have any pain," said the patient.
Lazović pointed out that this is an intervention that is not the privilege of small centers and teams, and that is why a good surgeon, staff and experience in open surgery is needed.
He said that not all patients with colon tumors are suitable for this type of surgery. He explained that strictly medical indications imply that patients without accompanying diseases, who have not had previous abdominal surgery, with a tumor that has not metastasized, and that they need to be as cardiorespiratory as possible are selected for the laparoscopic procedure...
Doctors, he claims, are also limited by the fact that most patients arrive late for examinations and that the tumor is diagnosed in later stages. According to Lazović, laparoscopic procedures also have risks that are greater in certain segments than in open surgery.
"With laparoscopic surgery, the complications are because the abdomen is lifted instead of the classic stretching, raises the abdominal wall and allows insight into the organs of the abdominal cavity.
Injuries to internal organs are possible because certain instruments are introduced that are not used in open surgery," explained Lazović. He also said that the patient's operation lasted two hours and 45 minutes, and that the length of the operation is very important, because it is not the same when the patient is under anesthesia for three or five hours, due to later recovery.
KCCG director Jevto Eraković said that this is a big day for that institution.
"When the most successful Montenegrin surgeons can advance in their work with new techniques, this is a message to young doctors to follow those examples and follow the modern trends of minimally invasive surgery," said Eraković.
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