Hello,
I had a laparoscopic salpingectomy to remove a ruptured right sided ectopic pregnancy 6 weeks ago. They have made 3 incisions- one inside my belly button, one in the middle of my lower abdomen and one in the left hand side of my abdomen, between the other two. Today I was looking in the mirror and just started thinking how weird it is that they removed my right tube but made an incision over my left one! Has this happened to anyone here? I can call the EPU and ask but if more women have had this, then I will assume it’s standard surgical procedure.
Thank you.
Dear Mvic28,
I am so sorry to hear of your ectopic pregnancy and loss. Unfortunately I am not medically trained so cannot give you specific advice, however this sounds like standard practice. In most circumstances, the type of operation is through a technique called laparoscopy (keyhole surgery). This involves inserting a camera through the navel (belly button) and inserting instruments through two small cuts in the lower abdomen (tummy). A small amount of gas is put into your abdominal cavity to inflate it to enable the surgeon to see inside the abdomen.
I hope this helps,
Sending much love,
Karen x
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Hi, sorry to hear about your experience and hope you’re healing well. I was wondering if you managed to get an explanation from EPU? I went through a salpingectomy 2 days ago and had a similar question on the stitches appearing on the other side of the tube removal.
Hi Hopefulyforthefuture
I had a salpingectomy 2 days ago and also had the same question for my doctor/ surgeon.
They told me the reason they do incisions on the opposite side is because the tools they use for a laparoscopic surgery are long and that working right above the site (i.e. in the side the tube is being removed) is difficult and does not give them the range of motion they need to perform the surgery. So they work from the opposite side of the removal site so they can work more easily with the tools.
Hope this helps
Thanks ladies, the doctor told me exactly the above - it’s safer to work from the healthy side.
Hope you’re both recovering as well as possible.