Open vs laparoscopic surgery

Hey guys

I am going to have j pouch surgery performed sometime in the next few months due to suffering with ulcerative colitis for 13 years ( and I'm only 20 ) and recently my doctor found cell dysplasia in my bowel so to me that is my excuse to get this thing out of me and move on with my life!

I have seen 1 surgeon so far and plan on seeing a couple more before picking one. The surgeon I did see said he would perform the surgery open and didn't think laparoscopic has many benefits. I couldn't care less about scarring and am not really one to have my shirt off anyway, I feel like the surgery itself could be performed better open because they obviously have a clearer view but then apparently adhesions are more likely to occur.

If everyone could share if they went with open or laparoscopic and the pros/ cons and what they recommend I would greatly appreciate it

Thanks, Anthony

My husband had open but he had no choice. He was 260 pounds when they did his surgery and said he was not a candidate for lapro. I am not sure if people experience the same pain afterward with a lapro but he had a lot of pain, loss of sensation on the bottom of his stomach and I think he even has a pinched nerve as he has this issue when he lays down to go to bed that the side of his leg starts going numb. His wound actually healed up pretty nicely but he did develop some sort of yeast infection or rash around his wound and it was really itchy. Just got a steroid cream for that and then it went away. It was also pretty hard to get his stomach muscles working again and I had to help him out of bed for a long time and help him get out of chairs. Also took a couple months before he could sleep on his sides.

Now having said all that... I have no idea if laproscopic people have exactly the same symptoms and just not a huge wound going down their stomach.

Hi Anthony.. I agree with Suebear - I think it's good to base your decision on the experience of the surgeon and who you feel you trust the most.. not just whether or not they do lapro or open.

You'll get a lot of different opinions from everyone on here, some have had great experiences of open others have lapro. In my experience (I've had both lapro and open surgery) I found I recovered in exactly the same amount of time from open as I did from lapro (I was back running about 4 weeks post surgery from both of them). My incision from the open surgery (whilst long) is very fine and will fade to nothing. I actually found lapro more uncomfortable as they fill you full of gas and I found the bloating and discomfort worse than the pain from the main incision with open.

I understand the theory behind the lapro creates less adhesions, but I had adhesions after lapro surgery and ended up having open surgery to fix them. Go figure.

My new surgeon is young and extremely experienced, but still prefers open surgery. He likes to see what he's doing and feel the orientation of the bowel. That said, there are lots of people on here who've had amazing results from lapro too.

I think all you can do is do what you're doing. Keep researching, talk to surgeons, get a feel for their experience and make your decision. Given how complicated J-pouch surgery is, I'd go for the one who's done the most J-pouches and who has the most experience.