Dr. Bouman Performs Labette Health’s First

Single-incision Laparoscopic Gall-bladder Removal

PARSONS, Kan., Mar. 20, 2009 – Jerry D. Bouman, D.O., F.A.C.O.S., has performed Labette Health’s first single-incision laparoscopic gall-bladder removal. The operation took place March 20.

With traditional surgical techniques, the gall bladder is removed through a five- to eight-inch incision in the abdomen. In a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, a laparoscope – a small thin tube with a camera that is used to see inside the body – and other instruments are inserted through several separate incisions. In the procedure Dr. Bouman performed, known as Single-Incision Laparoscopic Surgery (SILS), the laparoscope and other instruments are inserted through a single half-inch incision in the belly button.

“You make a little incision near the umbilicus, and then all your operating instruments go through that. There’s little scarring, it’s an outpatient procedure, and the recovery time is very good,” Dr. Bouman said. “The patient went home an hour after the procedure, and he is doing great.”

The patient, Brian Knisley, a supervisor employed by the City of Parsons, said he had been very sick and could not keep food down for two months prior to the surgery.

“I’m doing great now – never felt better in my life,” he said two weeks after his surgery. “Dr. Bouman did a fantastic job. He’s a great surgeon and we’re lucky to have him in this area.”

The SILS procedure is popular with patients because it doesn’t produce a scar. It also means faster recovery times, less risk for infection, less risk for bleeding and less pain, Dr. Bouman said.

Although he had not previously performed the procedure, Dr. Bouman said he had discussed it during a recent talk at the Parsons Senior Citizens Center but had not expected to find a patient who fit the SILS criteria so soon.

“I had planned to do it. I had trained to do it, but I was a little surprised to find an appropriate patient so soon after talking about it. He fit the criteria for the procedure because he had had no previous abdominal surgeries, he had no abdominal adhesions, his condition was chronic and it was not an acute situation.”

He said that the procedure was no longer considered experimental, but it was not yet in general usage.  It might also be used in appendectomies and to obtain biopsy speciments, he said.

“It’s not that difficult a procedure for a trained laparoscopic surgeon. It has a lot of applications for hospitals in communities like this one, because it allows patients to stay close to home,” he said.