Singapore - Doc uses glove instead of port in colon surgery

SINGAPORE: A surgeon from the Tan Tock Seng Hospital has become the first in Singapore to perform a new colon re-sectioning surgery using a common glove.

The Single Incision Laparoscopic Surgery, or SILS for short, usually involves an expensive equipment costing up to $2,000.

With SILS, a small incision of about 4cm is made to reach the colon with robotic arms. 

But the robotic arms need a port - which is expensive - to fit the needles for the surgery. 

However, Dr Leong Quor Meng, a consultant of general surgery, learnt from South Korean doctors a technique to replace the mechanical port with a glove. And it works just as well.

He said he picked up the technique during his overseas training in Korea to learn robotic surgery last year. He noticed that surgeons used a non-powdered glove, which costs only around a dollar, amongst other cheaper equipment.

By using a glove, equipment cost for SILS is cut by nearly 90 percent to just S$65.

Dr Leong said the technique can be useful if the tumour isn't large.

And he is confident one third of his patients can benefit from the approach of using gloves as modified "ports" and emerge with minimal scarring.

He said: "The advantages of this surgery are that it is cheap, the ports are cheap, and the outcome is very good. The patients recover fast, the cosmesis is excellent and we can provide it to all patients."

- CNA/ir


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