MDNews - San Antonio

Narcotic-free Women's Surgery! BY SUSAN A CROCKETT, MD MINIMALLY INVASIVE GYNECOLOGIC SURGEON THAT IS THE primary goal Susan Crockett, MD, had in mind when she left a very successful general OB-GYN practice four years ago to found Virtuosa Gyn — San Antonio's first medical practice dedicated to making surgery easier for women. Now, af ter performing robotic surger y for a lmost nine yea rs, Dr. Crockett has completed almost 900 cases, making her one of the top robotic specialists in the state of Texas. She has gone from doing about 50 robotic cases a year to around 200 a year, and she performs another 300 surgeries each year for pelvic prolapse, fibroids, endometriosis, ovarian cysts and abnormal bleeding. "The idea was that we could focus on making surgeries, such as hysterectomy and pelvic prolapse procedures, minimally invasive and therefore easier for patients in lots of ways," she explains. "We focus on developing and perfecting techniques that shorten the surgical time, minimize blood loss, lower complication rates, minimize pain and narcotic use postoperatively, lower costs, and shorten the patients' time in the hospital, as well as their recovery time to return to normal, everyday life activities. "One of the characteristics of advanced minimally invasive surgeons, like myself, is that we maintain around a 1 percent open surgery rate," Dr. Crockett continues. "Almost everything, even very large fibroids, ovarian cysts or hysterectomies, can be completed safely through small incision surgery. In the past nine years, I've only had to open, or do a large incision, on 16 patients." In light of the nation's narcotic abuse crisis, Dr. Crockett and other minimally invasive surgeons are now concentrating on oering narcotic-free surgeries. To see how they do it, take a look at "An Advanced Surgeon's Toolbox." 99% OF ALL GYN SURGERIES DONE ABDOMINALLY CAN BE SAFELY COMPLETED THROUGH SMALL INCISIONS SPECIAL CLINICAL SECTION: WOMEN'S HEALTH E A SE WOMEN'S SUFFERING. 1 2

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