Redefining Hysterectomy

St. Luke's and Northland OB/GYN Associates offer Minimally Invasive Hysterectomy

It's estimated that each year 600,000 women in the United States undergo hysterectomies, making hysterectomy the second most common surgery for women. The majority of these surgeries are either done vaginally or using an open abdominal method, which typically requires four to six weeks of recovery. Fortunately, this is changing with minimally invasive techniques. One such alternative is Laparoscopic Supracervical Hysterectomy (LSH), which can transform the hysterectomy experience for most women.

The LSH Alternative to Open Abdominal Hysterectomy

LSH causes less stress to the body than the traditional open abdominal hysterectomy. It was developed to reduce pain, minimize scarring and shorten recovery time. The procedure can be done on an outpatient basis, which means a woman can be home resting comfortably within 24 hours and back to her normal activities in less than two weeks.

Several Northland OB/GYN physicians are now performing the LSH procedure at St. Luke's. "My patients have commented that they were honestly surprised by how little pain they felt and that having LSH didn't mean having to put their life on hold," said Susan Goltz, MD, Northland OB/GYN.

The LSH procedure uses a laparoscope, which acts like a video camera, along with small surgical instruments that are all inserted through three to four tiny incisions (less than ¼ inch each) in the navel and abdomen. Because this type of surgery does not require the surgeon to make a large abdominal incision, a woman will not have the same kind of visible scar typical with most traditional, "open" surgeries. And, because of the small incisions of the procedure, recovery time is reduced from four to six weeks to less than two weeks.