Symptoms of stomach and intestinal disease are easily confused with those of different diseases. They may include rectal bleeding, cramping, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, early satiety, and weight loss among others. Due to the severity of these symptoms, contact your doctor immediately if you are experiencing any of these symptoms.

How do you make a diagnosis?

Similarities of symptoms can lead to incorrect diagnoses or non-diagnoses. This difficulty means we must forge a comprehensive and thorough diagnosis process. Your doctor will start with a detailed medical history and physical examination. If no diagnosis is decided, alternative methods may be pursued such as a CT scan, an upper GI series with small bowel follow throughs (X-rays, etc.), or an endoscopy.

What are my treatment options?

Treatment options are dependent on each individual patient’s diagnosis. Some intestinal diseases such as Crohn’s disease may be treated initially through medication. Other issues/diseases such as obstructions and tumors necessitate immediate surgery.

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Traditionally, operations performed on the stomach and intestinal tract require a large and obtrusive abdominal and/or pelvic incision. Incisions leave the patient with a lengthy recovery time and an intensive recovery process. However, new advances in medical technology allows doctors access to tools which facilitate the quicker, less painful, minimally-invasive procedures performed at Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery.

Description of the minimally-invasive laparoscopic procedure:

Minimally-invasive laparoscopic surgery is a procedure that requires thin tubes placed through 3-5 small incisions in the abdomen. These incisions are usually smaller than 0.5 centimeters. A thin telescope is placed through one of the tubes, which projects images from inside the patient onto a TV for the surgeon to view. Specialized instruments are placed through the remaining tubes to perform the operation. The patient is under general anesthesia for the duration of the procedure.

Advantages of minimally-invasive laparoscopic procedure vs. open surgery:

There are plenty of reasons why a minimally-invasive procedure is preferable to open surgery. Here are some common advantages experienced by our patients who opt for minimally-invasive surgery:

• Shorter hospital time

• Shorter recovery time

• Less pain at the incisions site

• Faster recovery and return to normal diet

• A quicker return to work or normal activity

• Better cosmetic healing at incisions site

Before the procedure:

Before surgery every patient must undergo a thorough evaluation by a primary doctor and the surgeon. It is possible patients may need further testing before surgery such as an endoscopy, EKG, chest x-ray, CT scan, or blood work. Your surgeon or doctor will order these as needed.

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​Small bowel surgery may require some form of bowel preparation as decided upon by your surgeon. You should notify your surgeon of ALL current medication you are taking during your evaluation.

Day of surgery: