What Is Laparoscopy, And When Is It Used In The Treatment Of Prostate Cancer?

March 16, 2009 -- Question: What is laparoscopy, and when is it used in the treatment of prostate cancer?

Answer: Laparoscopy is an approach to doing a type of surgery. It allows us to do surgery under the skin. Where we used to, traditionally, make a large incision to remove organs such as the gall bladder or now the prostate, we can now make small, subcentimeter incisions on the patient's belly or on their abdomen and put our instruments through those incisions and do all the surgery underneath the skin. It allows for less scarring, less discomfort for our patients and still allows us to do a very safe and effective surgical removal of the prostate.