Risks Of Ovarian Cancer Surgery
- Like any surgery, there is risk of infection, bleeding, and damaged organs
- Ovarian cancer surgery is generally safe and less than 3 percent of patients experience severe issues
- People who are older and have more comorbidities are at higher risk during surgery
“Any surgery has inherent danger for infection, bleeding, damaged internal organs, and the risk of the anesthia,” Dr. Kellie Schneider, a gynecologic oncologist at Novant Health in Charlotte, North Carolina, tells SurvivorNet. “However, the mortality for most people with this type of surgery, meaning the chances of having something catastrophic happen, is less than 3 percent and for a lot of patients less than 1 percent.”
Read MoreHow Ovarian Cancer Surgery Has Improved
There have been major research advancements in the oncology field that have made ovarian cancer a generally safe procedure. In the 60’s, ovarian cancer surgery almost always involved opening up a woman's abdomen and using scissors and knives to remove all visible cancer. Now, with the “da Vinci Robot,” which can be used to perform a minimally-invasive surgery for about half of women with ovarian cancer, the procedure is much more precise and risk is significantly lower.
“Since about 2006, we have shifted over doing the majority of our surgical cases with the old open technique,” Dr. Allan James (“A.J.”) White, a gynecologic oncologist at the START Center for Cancer Care, tells SurvivorNet in a separate interview. “I would say, at this time, we do more than half of our surgical procedures using the robot.”
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