During any medical procedure, there is always an attempt to keep things as minimum as possible. Be it drugs, tests or hospital stay, all efforts are put in to cause your body the least possible stress. The same policy applied to surgeries too. A surgeon wants to be as minimally invasive as possible. Laparoscopic surgeries do just that and in the long run, have wide applicability in medicine.

What is a laparoscopic surgery?

Laparoscopic surgeries are where multiple small incisions are made of not more than 1-1.5 cm called ports through which specialized instruments are inserted and surgery is done without the surgeon directly entering your body. One of the ports is used to insert a camera and the other ports are used to insert specialized instruments which can be used for cutting, holding, tearing etc. Laparoscopic surgeries are frequently employed for cholecystectomy, appendectomy, exploratory laparoscopy etc.

What are the laparoscopic instruments used regularly?

Many instruments are put into use during a laparoscopic surgery. Some of them are-Laparoscope which is a camera used to look inside the body without actually opening it up, Trocars are used to pierce the abdominal wall to insert the various instruments and various modified laparoscopic instruments which acts as scissors, blades, forceps, retractors etc.

What are laparoscopic instruments made of?

Any instrument that is introduced into the body have to be made with high quality material and must meet very strict regulations, guidelines and protocols. Material used for making these instruments is durable, strong and economically viable. Most commonly used is stainless steel of high quality.

Are laparoscopic instruments reusable?

This depends on the type of instrument and price. Most of the instruments are reusable and must be thoroughly sterilized before using again. Reusable trocars, meshes etc. do come in the market which are relatively cheaper.