Cutting-edge technology: minimally invasive surgery
Sheila smiles as she talks about the bathing suit she received as a gift for her newborn, Erin. "I know it might seem strange for a mom to be excited about her daughter wearing a two-piece bathing suit someday, but for us, that option holds special meaning," she says.
Erin underwent surgery when she was 3 weeks old to correct a congenital diaphragmatic hernia, a potentially fatal condition in which a small hole in the diaphragm allows the intestines to herniate, or protrude, into the chest cavity, which then compresses the lung.
Amazingly, there is little visible evidence of her operation; she barely has any scars on her belly. Erin is among the first generation of children to benefit from new minimally invasive surgical techniques performed by specially trained experts at Children’s Memorial Hospital.
In addition to dramatic decreases in scarring, a minimally invasive approach to surgery offers many advantages for children, including faster healing, shorter hospital stays, less pain and reduced trauma to normal tissues.
"Minimally invasive surgery is the way of the future," says Marleta Reynolds, MD, head of the Division of Pediatric Surgery at Children’s Memorial and professor of Surgery at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. "It is the next frontier of pediatric surgery."
Small incisions, big improvement
With the recent recruitment of three minimally invasive surgeons – Katherine Barsness, MD, David Rothstein, MD, and Anthony Chin, MD – the majority of chest and abdominal surgeries at Children’s Memorial are now being performed in a minimally invasive way. The hospital is an emerging leader in this new realm of pediatric surgery, which involves the use of precision instruments with end points about the size of a pen tip for small incisions, along with high-tech cameras and monitors.
During the operation to repair the hole in Erin’s diaphragm, Barsness made three tiny incisions under her right arm. "Working through these small incisions, we’re able to perform the exact same procedure that traditionally required a large incision across a child’s abdomen," she says. "On the inside, the procedure is identical to that of a traditional operation. It’s just the way we access the anatomy that is different."