Know Your Options

Hello everybody. It's Dr. Coyle, coming to you live from the Coyle Institute. Today, I'd like to talk to you about something that is very dear to me, and it's called "Know Your Options." What do I mean by that? Well, knowing your options is just simply kind of researching and knowing what's available out there, so that way, you can seek and have the most appropriate and minimally invasive procedure that you are in need of. Okay? And so, let's talk about minimally invasive procedures for just a second.

Minimally invasive procedures, typically laparoscopy, or specifically nowadays, using the da Vinci Surgery System, to be able to do some really amazing surgeries through little bitty holes. This type of technology has really revolutionized the way that we are able to take care of patients today. Historically, what has happened is, in the general surgery realm, general surgeons really kind of grabbed onto this technology early on because, prior to this...

Let's think about like, the gallbladder, doing cholecystectomies, removing the gallbladder. It used to be a surgery that was done open, where you would have this large incision that would cut you open, spend several days in the hospital to remove your gallbladder. Then, general surgeons started doing this surgery through the camera, laparoscopic gallbladder removal. Well, very quickly, general surgeons learned that if they didn't learn how to offer this minimally invasive approach, then they would end up losing these patients. And so, nowadays, if you have to have your gallbladder taken out, pretty much every general surgeon on the planet has been trained in doing minimally invasive surgery, which is absolutely fantastic for everybody involved. Okay?

Well, what happens in women's health? Unfortunately, there's still a lot of women that are receiving open surgery, and that open surgery means where you have a big incision to remove whatever it is, either it be the uterus, or a tube, or a cyst on the ovary, or having severe endometriosis, or anything like that. Minimally invasive surgery has been around for a long time, and we've actually been able to do those surgeries through the camera without having to cut you open and have major surgery.

The difference between minimally invasive surgery and open surgery is astronomical. Open surgery, you spend several days in the hospital, you have an increased risk of pain, bleeding, infection, injury to surrounding organs, where minimally invasive surgery is done through a couple of little bitty holes. You have the surgery done, and most of the time, you're going home the same day and back to work much sooner, back to normal life much sooner. So, instead of having an open surgery to where you're in the hospital, you could be at home with your family, with the ones that you love, actually getting back to your life in a much more normal fashion.

And so, one of the things that I wanted to talk about is, knowing your options is, oftentimes, women with their OB-GYN doctor, we recommend that you seek out other options if a minimally invasive option is not given to you during a consultation for surgery. Nowadays, it's phenomenal when a woman actually comes to us for that, and then we can actually treat them with a minimally invasive procedure, and then refer them right back to their OB-GYN doctor that's been taking care of them and caring for them for many years.

And so, from now on, if you are in a situation where surgery has been recommended to you, make sure you ask. Ask the questions. "Can it be done minimally invasive?" And if the answer is no, it's not a detriment, or it's not an issue to where you can't say, "Well, let me get a second opinion." Okay? If any one of my patients came to me and said, "Doc, do you think I should get a second opinion?" I would always say, "Yes. I would rather you go get a second opinion with somebody else and wonder, 'Could it have been done a different way?'"

So, ladies, make sure you know your options. Thank you very much.