Keyhole Op is a First

By Marie Levy

A 67-YEAR-OLD man has become the first person on Teesside to have what would have previously been major open abdominal surgery by a keyhole procedure.

Eddie Cooper had a kidney and one of his ureters (the tube taking urine from the kidney to the bladder) removed in a keyhole procedure after being diagnosed with cancer.

Done in the traditional way this major surgery would have meant a large scar left as the result of the open surgery and a long stay in hospital.

Instead Mr Cooper has been left with two small ‘port hole’ scars on his back where the instruments and camera were inserted to enable to 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 his procedure Mr Cooper was well enough to go home to Sedgefield.

He was full of praise for the surgical and nursing team at the University Hospital of North Tees where the operation took place.

Eddie said he is surprised how quickly he has recovered.

“I had the operation on Thursday and was home on Saturday and I did not even have a dressing on. Now I’m back at work, cutting the lawn and gardening.”

The procedure was performed by surgeon Ignacio Carretero-Zamora.

He said: “In future we’ll 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’s good for everyone. For the patient it is far less traumatic because they do not have to go through major open abdominal surgery.”

He added: “It also means a far shorter time in hospital and a much shorter recovery time enabling the patient to get back to normal a lot faster. For the hospital, it means we can treat more patients with the resources we have.”

(c) 2007 Evening Gazette – Middlesbrough. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.