Hysterectomy through belly button leaves no scars

LONDON: In a surgical feat, doctors have operated on a woman which they claim is the first hysterectomy in Europe through a tiny incision in her belly button, leaving no visible outward scars.
The technique, known as single incision laparoscopic surgery, is the latest development in keyhole surgery where the instruments are inserted through the belly button including a tiny camera and surgeons manoeuvre inside using a TV monitor.

Surgeon Thomas Ind, who led the team which carried out the hysterectomy ��� the surgical removal of the uterus ��� on the woman named Debbie Price, said the method is only an extension of what is already being done with keyhole methods.
���Instead of making three or four holes for instruments we just make one hole. The patients like the idea of not having three or four little scars across their tummy���, he said. Price, 46, decided to go for the operation after suffering for years with adenomyosis ��� a painful condition where the womb lining grows into muscle of the uterus.