First in Northwest Arkansas – Willow Creek Women's Hospital Offers Innovative Minimally Invasive Hysterectomy
5/18/2021
Johnson – A new minimally invasive option for hysterectomy procedures is now available to Northwest Arkansas women. This advanced gynecologic technique can provide many benefits to female patients, such as a shorter hospital stay, less postoperative pain, no visible scars and a faster recovery time.
Dr. Greg Reiter has been specially trained on this innovative approach to hysterectomy and performs this surgery exclusively at Willow Creek Women’s Hospital in Johnson. Reiter is the first and only surgeon in Northwest Arkansas currently performing this technique and has been offering this innovative procedure to enhance patient care for women.
Reiter first started performing this new hysterectomy technique at Willow Creek Women’s Hospital in December 2020. Reiter says, “I’ve done about a dozen now, and I’m seeing recovery is significantly easier for my patients. We are discharging them directly from recovery to home after about one hour.”
Reiter, an independent member of the medical staff of the hospital, is a board-certified obstetrics and gynecologic surgeon. The new technique, which uses the vagina as a surgical access route, is the newest approach to hysterectomy procedures. For the surgery, a special port is placed through the vagina into the pelvic cavity, giving access to the uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries. This port is used to inflate the abdomen with carbon dioxide gas to give the surgeon the space needed to see and operate. A high-definition camera and specialized instruments are inserted through the device, allowing surgeons to operate with the increased precision and visualization. Once the surgery is completed, the port is removed and the gas is evacuated.
“This procedure is a new twist on an old method of performing vaginal hysterectomies. I like to stay on the cutting edge of new technology that has direct benefits for my patients. Anything that makes surgery easier for me and recovery more comfortable for patients is a win,” said Reiter.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists have recommended vaginal hysterectomy, whenever feasible, as the approach of choice.
“This new technique has advantages over traditional methods,” say Reiter. “It allows me to avoid abdominal incisions and the complications that can come from those.”
The risks of abdominal incisions include damage to adjacent organs, bleeding, increased pain and infections.
In the U.S., about 500,000 hysterectomies are performed each year for women with chronic pain, fibroids, heavy bleeding, endometriosis and precancerous or cancerous tumors.
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