Keyhole Surgery is First of Its Kind in the North-East

By Barry Nelson Health Editor

IN what is believed to be one of the first operations of its kind in the North-East, a 67-year-old patient has had a kidney removed by keyhole surgery.The operation, carried out with a specialised range of equipment, meant that instead of spending weeks recovering from major surgery, the patient was home in only two days.Eddie Cooper, from Sedgefield, County Durham, had a kidney and one of his ureters removed in a keyhole procedure.Mr Cooper had cancer of the ureter (the tube taking urine from the kidney to the bladder) and doctors decided that removing the diseased ureter and the kidney attached to it would be the only way of ensuring the cancer could be caught.Carried out in the traditional way, surgery would have meant a large scar and a long stay in hospital. Instead, Mr Cooper has been left with two small scars on his back where the instruments and camera were inserted to enable surgery to take place and a small seven centimetre scar on the front of his abdomen where the diseased ureter and kidney were removed.Two days after the operation, Mr Cooper was well enough to go home. The part-time chartered accountant said he was very grateful to the surgical and nursing team at the University Hospital of North Tees.The procedure was performed by Ignacio Carretero-Zamora. He said: “In future, we will see many more operations done this way, but it is ambitious to carry out a procedure as major as this by keyhole – or minimally invasive – surgery.”It is good for everyone. For the patient, it is far less traumatic because they do not have to go through major open abdominal surgery. It also means a far shorter time in hospital and a much shorter recovery time.”For the hospital it means we can treat more patients with the resources we have.” Medical director Dr Peter Gill said: “This type of surgery is undoubtedly the way forward. We plan to expand and develop this type of surgery, which is much better for patients because they recover much quicker.”

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