Laparoscopic surgery depends on access. Trocars and ports serve as conduits for cameras; grasping, dissecting, cutting and sealing instruments; mesh positioners; staplers and a host of other devices reaching in to treat the otherwise untouchable surgical site in the abdominal cavity.
The narrower instruments and smaller incision sizes that support minimally invasive surgery shrink the necessary diameter of these access ports and, consequently, their impact on surgical patients' tissue, a benefit which sparked the concept of single-incision laparoscopy, in which one port does the job.
But as surgical techniques and surgical access have miniaturized, a single port now has to play many roles. Simply delivering access isn't enough: Ports must offer other functional advantages as well, as surgical innovators and medical device manufacturers have recently realized. For example, one access device manufacturer also offers a way to ensure predictable incision closing outcomes.
When is a port not a port? When it's actually 3 or more ports. Or when it's also an insufflation device. Or when it's part of a multi-tasking laparoscopic management system.
Among the recent developments to hit the access market:
- a reusable trocar, designed to be as easy to take apart and clean as it is easy on your supply budget;
- a multiple-port access device that's been reduced in size but doesn't reduce instrument articulation;
- trocars that can accommodate versatile combinations of instrument sizes;
- a port that warms insufflation gas to benefit the surgeon and patient; and
- a port that provides access, pressure, insufflation and filtration in one system.