The Pros And Cons Of Endoscopy

Introduction The twentieth century was a period introducing many breakthroughs in medicine. Large part of the medical discoveries and newly developed procedures of the mentioned time are influencing the illness treatment even today. The role of this paper is not to make an extensive overview on those discoveries but to focus the attention on the changes that occurred in the field of surgery. Typical surgical procedure involves the incision of the body in order to treat desired part leading to a lot of pain, possible blood loss, infections, scars, and long convalescence. The consequences mentioned might occur in even higher degree if the considered case is internal surgery. Along with the 20th century we have witnessed the birth of a new branch of

In MIS the medical tool, and small image capturing device with its own source of light (endoscope) are inserted into patient body through a small (0.5 - 1.5 cm) incisions. The general name we use for MIS procedures is Endoscopy and depending on the body part operated we use different name (laparoscopy - abdominal or pelvic, arthroscopy - joint interiors, etc.) and instruments. There are some obvious advantages of Endoscopy over open surgery, advantages such as: reduced surgical trauma, decreased blood loss, smaller wound and consequent pain, less demand for painkillers in postoperative period, quicker hospitalization and full physical activity recovery, and more pleasant external look of the scar. However, some drawbacks to the method need to be mentioned. Major disadvantages being the limited access to certain internal regions of the human body and precision of the instruments used. Both can be eliminated with development of more advanced apparatus. Other problem are the technical difficulties and need for surgeons skilled in the