A 220-pound fat woman recovers from uterine fibroids The fattest patient in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of our hospital has undergone laparoscopic surgery so far. Recently our OB/GYN surgical team, led by department head Wan Guiping, successfully performed a laparoscopic total hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy on a severely obese patient weighing more than 220 pounds. The patient, Cai, recovered well after surgery. It is reported that this is the fattest patient who has undergone laparoscopic surgery in our obstetrics and gynecology department so far. Patient Cai, female, 51 years old, weighing more than 200 pounds. She came to our gynecology outpatient clinic because of heavy menstrual flow and stomach pain for 7 years. The patient used to have regular menstruation with heavy menstrual flow, blood clots and dysmenorrhea. Gynecological examination revealed that the uterus was enlarged as the size of 3 months of pregnancy. She was recommended to be hospitalized. Faced with such an obese patient, Wan Guiping, the director of our obstetrics and gynecology department, convened the obstetricians and gynecologists, including director Huang Meihua and director Zhu Li, and the anesthesiology department to assess the condition. Cai was 51 years old, with heavy menstrual flow to anemia, ultrasound suggestive of uterine fibroids, and indicated for surgery, laparoscopic total hysterectomy + bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy was feasible. In addition, the patient weighed more than 220 pounds, and the thick abdominal wall fat increased the difficulty of surgery and the risk of anesthesia. The patient’s vital signs were stable after the operation, and she was able to get out of bed one day after the operation and eat fluids three days after the operation. Director Wan Guiping said that laparoscopic minimally invasive surgery is widely used in the field of obstetrics and gynecology because it does not require opening the abdomen, has small wounds, less bleeding, fast recovery and can reduce the number of days in the hospital. In addition, Director Wan said that obese patients are more suitable for laparoscopic surgical treatment. This is because open surgery in obese patients is easy to cause postoperative incision infection because the incision is large and deep and the subcutaneous fat is easily liquefied. If laparoscopic surgery is performed, there is no difference between obese patients and those with normal weight in terms of wound size, duration of surgery and damage to the muscle. The incidence of complications such as incisional infections is also lower in laparoscopic surgery than in open surgery. Therefore, laparoscopic surgery is more suitable for obese patients. The greatest advantage of laparoscopic surgery is that it can cure the disease with minimal trauma. The operator must be familiar with the pelvic anatomy such as the anatomical position of pelvic organs, blood vessels and nerves and their adjacent relationships, followed by skillful laparoscopic operation techniques and cooperative surgical team members, as well as paying attention to gentle operation and correct use of various laparoscopic surgical instruments during the operation. The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of our hospital, represented by Director Wan Guiping, has achieved good results in diagnosing and treating various types of ectopic pregnancy, pelvic adhesions, endometriosis, benign ovarian teratoma, ovarian cysts, uterine fibroids, tubal recanalization and other gynecological diseases through laparoscopic surgery. Since the introduction of laparoscopic surgery, the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of our hospital has been ranked among the top hospitals in terms of the number of incoming and outgoing patients, the number of operations, the utilization rate of beds, the turnover rate of beds and the rate of cure and improvement, and the patient satisfaction rate is high. We are well aware of the fact that achievements only represent the past, and it is the unremitting pursuit of all medical and nursing staffs in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of our hospital to continue to forge ahead, develop and innovate, and continue to benefit the majority of patients.