A Descriptive Study on Laparoscopic Colon Surgery: A Single Tertiary Hospital Experience (St. Luke’s Medical Center – Quezon City)

Howard I. Reyes-Lao. M.D., Marie Abigail C. Chan. M.D.

Importance:

Minimally invasive colon surgery is becoming a treatment option for patients undergoing colon surgery.

Methods:

Twenty-one patients who underwent elective laparoscopic colon surgery in a single tertiary hospital (St. Luke’s Medical Center Quezon City) from January 2012 to September 2014 were included in the study.

Main Outcomes and Measures:

In-hospital mortality, complications, conversion to open procedure, mean operative time and mean length of post-operative of stay.

Results:

In-hospital mortality rate is approximately 4.7% (n=1), complication rate of 23.8% (n=5), conversion to open procedure 4.7% (n=1), mean operative time of 314.2 minutes in 2012, 299.7 minutes in 2013 and 287.2 minutes in 2014. Mean length of post-operative hospital stay was 7 days.

Conclusion:

Minimally invasive surgery has been gaining popularity in treating certain surgical diseases. Laparoscopic colon surgery is becoming one of the treatment options in approaching colorectal surgeries for malignancies, benign obstructing lesions and diverticulitis. The outcomes in the center were still limited due to a small number of laparoscopic colon surgeries and are still not comparable to international standard, although the census for this type of procedure in St. Luke’s Medical Center-QC has been gaining in number through the years. Local data has not been established hence this study could serve as a pioneer for future studies.