What is the difference in recovery time between the traditional procedure and the laparoscopic one?
Dr. Samstein: The standard donor who has the 20 to 25 centimeter incision typically takes about four to six weeks to recover from that operation, stays in the hospital about anywhere from four to seven days, and really needs to take three to four weeks off of work, and even afterwards, doesn’t feel whole until about four to six weeks. With this operation, what we’re seeing is recovery in about 10 days and return to work in two to three weeks with really much less pain and much less fatigue, feeling like they’re ready to do whatever is required, for example, take care of the baby. The risk of hernia, of chronic pain, and of energy loss seems much less. It’s a relatively small experience, but we’ve been very pleased with the results so far. How important is the shorter recovery time for children? Dr. Samstein: Ultimately, what we want to do is to have children have an optimized outcome, and children have an optimized outcome when their parents are able to take care of them and when the s
