Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center First to Perform Single Incision Hysterectomy

 WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Wake forest university Baptist Medical Center announced today that it had successfully performed laparoscopic total hysterectomies requiring only one incision. Wake Forest Baptist is the first in western North Carolina to do the single-incision procedure.

 “The procedure is extremely minimally invasive,” said Andrea Fernandez, M.D., section-head of the section on general obstetrics and gynecology at Wake Forest Baptist. “Patients are home within 24 hours, and the procedure will not likely leave a visible scar.”

 The procedure uses a technology called Covidien SILS™ (Single Incision Laparoscopic Surgery) that requires only one incision—through the belly button – and results in minimal to no scarring, less pain, a shorter recovery time, and less risk of infection than other hysterectomies.

 Other options for patients are a traditional hysterectomy (uterus removal) or laparoscopic supracervical hysterectomy (LSH). The traditional hysterectomy requires a large opening across the abdomen, and the recuperation time is usually six weeks. The less invasive LSH requires three small incisions and a two-week recovery.

 “Women are becoming advocates for their own health care and are searching for the best solutions to their gynecologic issues,” said Fernandez. “With the option of these (single-incision) procedures we continue to remain at the forefront of surgical technologies.”

 About 40,000 hysterectomies are performed in the U.S. each year, usually for the treatment of endometriosis, fibroids, benign cysts and chronic pelvic pain. 

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