Can abdominal organs be removed with only regional pain relief?
A recent review in Faculty of 1000 Medicine Reports, a publication in which clinicians highlight advances in medical practice, suggests regional pain relief could be used during abdominal surgery. In this review, Michael Schaefer recommends a new approach that can be performed without the need for general anaesthetics. Currently, abdominal surgery is often carried out through laparoscopy, in which surgical tools are manoeuvred through several small incisions in the abdominal wall under general anaesthetics. But in an emerging technique, Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES), the organs are reached through a natural opening in the body, such as the mouth or the vagina. This type of surgery is not yet a mainstream procedure. “NOTES procedures in patients have been reported worldwide in only about 30 cases”, Schaefer emphasizes. Patients may prefer it because of low postoperative pain discomfort and because of a lack of visible scarring. Schaefer points out that NOTES ma
