Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to W B Saye.
Laparoscopic appendectomy was performed on 109 patients over a 3-year-period--1988 to 1991. All procedures were uneventful and all patients resumed normal activity within a shorter period than had been experienced with open appendectomy. Patients had a superior cosmetic result and experienced significantly less postoperative discomfort.
Two sets of experiments were conducted to determine whether the potential hazards of secondary sparking and distal tissue burns are a serious risk for surgeons using monopolar electrosurgery during laparoscopy. The results indicate that secondary sparking poses little threat, whereas distal burns are very likely, given certain tissue parameters that force the entire electric current through narrow structures.
We used laparoscopic techniques to do appendectomies with the argon laser on 32 patients. The first two patients were hospitalized overnight, and the other 30 patients were treated as outpatients. All patients resumed normal activity within 7 days. All recoveries were uneventful and no complications developed. Diagnostic laparoscopy enables the surgeon to diagnose and treat abdominal pain more definitively and much earlier.