Tumor may be small, but it’s worrying, dual-scope combination solves worries

Auntie Sun, who lives in Minhang, is not happy about the upcoming New Year. A medical checkup before Chinese New Year found a 3cm mesenchymal tumor growing in her stomach, which is not suitable for gastroscopic resection because it grows into the stomach cavity and has a wide base, and direct laparoscopic minimally invasive treatment is not always possible to find the tumor from the abdominal cavity. The risk of complications such as infection is much higher than normal people. Therefore, this has become a heart problem for Auntie Sun, and the whole Spring Festival has been a very disturbing time. Prof. Huang Hua, together with the endoscopy experts, carefully analyzed the patient’s condition and formulated a treatment plan of laparoscopy and gastroscopy combined with mesenchymal tumor removal. After full preparation, Auntie Sun lay on the operation table and Associate Professor Zhang Wenming of the endoscopy team operated the gastroscope to find the tumor in the patient’s stomach cavity successfully. The lumpectomy team made several small keyhole-sized holes in the abdominal wall of the patient, separated the large omentum, exposed the posterior wall of the stomach, found the location of the tumor under the guidance of the gastroscope, clamped, closed and removed the tumor completely in one go. Minimally invasive surgery in gastrointestinal tumor surgery is developing rapidly and the scope of application is expanding. Compared with traditional surgery, laparoscopic surgery for gastrointestinal tumors has the advantages of less trauma, less postoperative pain and faster recovery of gastrointestinal function. However, there are also shortcomings. For lesions not invading the plasma layer (the outermost layer of the gastric wall), it is difficult to locate the lesions, and if the lesions cannot be accurately located, it is impossible to accurately resect the site and scope, so in the past, we could only “open a big knife”, forming the phenomenon of “small tumor, big incision”. The emergence of combined double-scope technology has solved this problem that has been plaguing us for many years. The combined laparoscopy (rigid mirror) and endoscopy (soft mirror) are combined in the same operation. This technique gives full play to the advantages of gastroscopy and laparoscopy in precise positioning and complete resection, complementing the shortcomings of a single endoscope or laparoscope, further expanding the scope of application of minimally invasive techniques. The combined laparoscopic and endoscopic technique is widely used for: giant gastric polyps, gastric smooth muscle tumor, gastric mesenchymal tumor, early gastric cancer, ectopic pancreas in the stomach, duodenal adenoma and other lesions. It is believed that more patients will benefit from this technology as the combined dual-scope technology is promoted.