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MEDICAL ANIMATION TRANSCRIPT: If you suffer from severe obesity and have been unable to lose weight, your doctor may recommend robotic bariatric surgery. Your digestive system-- or gastrointestinal tract-- includes your mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine. Your pancreas, liver, and gallbladder, squirt digestive juices into your small intestine to help break down the food you eat. Your doctor may recommend bariatric surgery if you are unable to lose weight and keep it off through diet and exercise alone; have a body mass index, or BMI, above 40; have a BMI above 35 and you have a life threatening condition, such as heart disease or diabetes; or weigh more than one hundred pounds over your ideal body weight, or IBW. Bariatric surgery helps you lose weight by decreasing the size of your stomach, so that it holds less food and makes you feel full more quickly. Your procedure may include bypassing some of your small intestine to decrease the length of the path of food through your digestive system, as well as the amount of calories absorbed from the food. Before your procedure, an intravenous line-- or IV-- will be started. You may be given antibiotics through the IV to decrease your chance of infection. You'll be given general anesthesia. A breathing tube will be inserted through your mouth and down your throat to help you breathe during the operation. Your surgeon will make a small incision near your belly button, and insert a plastic tube called a port. Carbon dioxide gas will be pumped into your abdomen through this port. The gas will inflate your abdomen, giving your surgeon more room to see and move the surgical tools. After your abdomen is inflated, a high-definition camera will be inserted into this port. Your surgeon will make additional port incisions for robotic instruments, as well as instruments used by patient-side assistants. An assistant will insert all of the robotic tools through these ports. Unlike standard laparoscopic instruments, these tools can rotate 360 degrees and have more flexibility than the human wrist. Seated at a special console, your surgeon will operate the robotic arms and the camera with joystick-like controls and foot pedals. A computer will translate the exact movements of your surgeon's fingers into precise movements of the surgical tools. At the same time, a high-definition vision system will provide a magnified, three-dimensional, stereoscopic view of the surgical area. Two common robotic bariatric surgical procedures are adjustable gastric banding, and gastric bypass. If you are having an adjustable gastric banding procedure, your surgeon will apply a restrictive band around your stomach, to limit the amount of food your stomach can hold. Tubing will connect the band to a port just beneath the skin of your abdomen. Your surgeon will inject saline solution into the tubing to adjust the band's tightness, as needed to hasten your weight loss or reduce side effects. If you are having a gastric bypass procedure, your surgeon will create a small pouch in your stomach, and separate the rest of your stomach and upper section of your small intestine. The lower section of your small intestine will be attached to the stomach pouch. Then your surgeon will reattach the upper section of your small intestine to a different part of your lower small intestine, which will allow digestive juices from your pancreas, liver, and gallbladder to help digest your food. At the end of your procedure, the incision will be closed with stitches, staples, surgical glue, or closure tape dressings. After your procedure, your breathing tube will be removed, and you will be taken to the recovery area for monitoring. You will be given pain medication as needed. You may continue to receive antibiotics through your IV. Most patients are released from the hospital one to two days after the procedure.
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Greene, Broillet, Panish & Wheeler
Santa Monica, CA
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O. Fayrell Furr, Jr.
Furr, Henshaw & Ohanesian
Myrtle Beach, SC
www.scmedicalmalpractice.com
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Todd J. Kenyon
Attorney at Law
Minneapolis, MN
"Thank you for the wonderful illustrations. The case resulted in a defense verdict last Friday. I know [our medical expert witness] presented some challenges for you and I appreciate how you were able to work with him."
Robert F. Donnelly
Goodman Allen & Filetti, PLLC
Richmond, VA
Medical Legal Art creates medical demonstrative evidence (medical
illustrations, drawings, pictures, graphics, charts, medical animations,
anatomical models, and interactive presentations) for use during legal
proceedings, including research, demand letters, client conferences,
depositions, arbitrations, mediations, settlement conferences, mock jury
trials and for use in the courtroom. We do not provide legal or medical
advice. If you have legal questions, you should find a lawyer with whom you
can discuss your case issues. If you have medical questions, you should seek the advice of a healthcare provider.
