Although laparoscopic colorectal surgery has now been performed for 15 years, uptake into the surgical community has been slower than anticipated. One of the primary reasons for this delay has been the significant learning curve that laparoscopic colectomy requires.
Laparoscopic colorectal surgical training methods involve the use of a variety of laboratory-based courses, and technical lectures, and it is becoming recognized that teaching laparoscopic colectomy is a multistep process. Surgeons who wish to learn laparoscopic colectomy come with differing levels of experience. No matter what the level of experience, what all these surgeons require is familiarity with the operative steps of laparoscopic colectomy.
This book is a new venture to complement programs that teach laparoscopic colectomy. The book facilitates that process by helping students of laparoscopic colectomy develop the pattern-recognition skills required to perform this technique safely and successfully. Each chapter starts with a detailed textual description of procedures. Chapters are accompanied by a DVD that has been edited to display key steps of the laparoscopic portions of each surgical procedure. The book offers a reference databank of edited operative videos for each colonic surgery commonly performed laparoscopically.
The book starts with chapters describing the background information required to perform laparoscopic colorectal surgery. Operative videos are then divided into several groups. The first section presents videos of each component step used for colorectal procedures. Each is shown in detail with accompanying written text and a voice-over description of the procedure. The three basic surgeries of ileocecectomy, right colectomy, and sigmoid colectomy are shown in extensive detail with accompanying written text and a voice-over describing the procedure being performed. The final sections provide means of dealing with some intraoperative difficulties during laparoscopic colorectal surgery, and other useful techniques.
This should be a useful resource for residents and fellows in training, surgeons who are attending courses in laparoscopic colorectal surgery, and surgeons who are at an early stage of integrating this technique into their practice.