General surgery
What does general surgery deal with?
General surgery is a specialty dealing with a wide spectrum in which – as we jokingly say – surgeries are performed from head to toe. At Emineo Private Hospital, we only deal with a narrower part of this wide spectrum as yet. This specialty deals with congenital or acquired benign and sometimes malignant diseases of the body. In the following, we name the interventions available in our private institution.
What diseases or complaints are most common here?
Description of the disease: 8 to 10 percent of the population is affected by gallstones in which one or more stones of different sizes and shapes are formed in the gallbladder. These stones are mostly cholesterol stones, but pigment stones and mixed stones also occur to a significant extent.
Symptoms: Gallstones can persist asymptomatically for years, as the stones grow only about 0.8mm per year. When they cause symptoms, the most common symptoms are: abdominal cramps, bloating, indigestion, feeling full. In addition, in more severe cases, gallbladder occlusion, inflammation of the gallbladder, biliary tract obstruction, jaundice, and pancreatitis may occur. In the case of gallstones that have persisted for decades, cancerous changes of the gallbladder are also a real danger.
Treatment: Various non-surgical techniques have recently been developed to treat gallstones. Of these, we would highlight the technique of dissolving and crushing gallstones. It is important to know, however, that these techniques can be used only in 10-15% of the cases when the gallstone is small and the gallbladder itself is still healthy. The recurrence rate for these techniques is high. In the majority of cases (80-85%) surgery, that is, removal of the gallbladder should be chosen. This surgery is performed by laparoscopic technique, which you can read about in detail here.
Description of the disease: Inguinal hernia is a congenital or acquired lack of continuity at a point in the abdominal wall through which the peritoneum bulges like a sac (hernia sac). In advanced cases, the hernia can also appear in the scrotum in men and in the labia majora in women. Various visceral organs can enter this sac and in some cases, these do not return to the abdominal cavity, which can be caused by adhesion or the incarceration of the hernia content.
In the case of incarcerated hernia, the blood supply to the hernia content may be disrupted, the tissues may die, organ punctures and infectious, inflammatory conditions may develop. Symptoms of intestinal obstruction may develop in any part of the bowel of the incarcerated organ. In most cases, this condition requires urgent surgery, which may require partial removal of the damaged organs.
Symptoms: Swelling of varying size appears in the groin area, which may be accompanied by severe pain.
Treatment: The only permanent cure for hernia is surgery, however, advances in technology have made it possible to perform hernia surgery laparoscopically. In this case, the necessary instruments are inserted by dropping a few cm incisions, and the procedure is performed with the help of a video system and a synthetic mesh reinforcing the abdominal wall is implanted. The patient can resume a normal life without physical exertion the day after surgery. You can read more details about the surgery here.
If, for some reason, laparoscopic hernia surgery cannot be performed, or the patient decides on an open surgical solution after receiving medical information, the so-called Lichtenstein surgery is performed. With this tension-free, mesh-implantation technique, postoperative pain is much milder, recovery time is shorter, and the chances of recurrence are lower than with traditional open surgical solutions.
Description of the disease: one-third of breast tumors are benign. Medicine distinguishes many types of benign breast tumors including those that typically develop below the age of 30, during breastfeeding, or during menopause. In order to detect them as soon as possible, we emphasize regular manual breast examinations, which our patients can perform themselves, and if they find anything suspicious, they should see a specialist right away.
Symptoms: The symptoms may be different, but each is characterized by the formation of a lump in the breast of different size and feel.
Treatment: After detailed examination (triplet diagnosics: ultrasound, mammography, aspiration cytology), benign breast tumors (fibroadenoma, cyst, lipoma, gynecomastia in men) are removed and sent for histological examination. With this therapy, we can prevent the subsequent (very rare) malignant degeneration of these benign lesions. You can read more about the surgery here.
Description of the disease: Umbilical and abdominal wall hernia is a congenital or acquired lack of continuity in the abdominal wall through which the peritoneum bulges like a sac (hernia sac). Various visceral organs can enter this sac (hernia content) and in some cases, these do not return to the abdominal cavity. This can be caused by adhesion incarceration of the hernia content. In the case of incarcerated hernia, the blood supply to the hernia content may be disrupted, the tissues may die, organ punctures and infectious, inflammatory conditions may develop. Symptoms of intestinal obstruction may develop in any part of the bowel of the incarcerated organ. In most cases, this condition requires urgent surgery, which may require partial removal of the damaged organs.
Symptoms: Swelling of varying size appears on the abdominal wall, which may be accompanied by pain.
Treatment: The only permanent cure for hernia is surgery, however, advances in technology have made it possible to perform hernia surgery laparoscopically in certain cases In this case, the necessary instruments are inserted by dropping a few cm incisions, and the procedure is performed with the help of a video system and in most cases, a synthetic mesh is implanted between the layers of the abdominal wall. In some of the cases, open surgical technique is technically reasonable and a better solution. You can read more about the surgery here.
Description of the disease: The different lesions of the skin (e.g., sebaceous cysts, benign fatty tumors, small skin abscesses, inflamed dermoid cysts) are very different from each other, so we do not try to detail them here.
Symptoms: May be aesthetic or discolored areas of skin that stand out from the normal skin surface.
Treatment: Removal is performed for “prevention” or for aesthetic reasons. In case of benign lesions and to prevent the spread of the tumor in case of malignant lesions. At Emineo Private Hospital, the skin lesion is removed with a safety margin in accordance with the professional rules, under local anesthesia, and then the wound is closed with a skin suture. Naturally, the removed lesion is sent for histological examination. You can read more about the surgery here.
Description of the disease: Goiter, also known as goitre, is a benign nodular lesion or enlargement of the thyroid gland which may be caused by iodine deficiency, hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism.
Symptoms: The lesion may be asymptomatic. However, it often causes breathing and swallowing problems, as well as disorders in the production of the thyroid hormone thyroxine. Swallowing and breathing problems can significantly impair the quality of life. Inadequate levels of a hormone called thyroxine produced by the thyroid gland can cause the following symptoms: palpitations, insomnia or abnormal tiredness, involuntary weight loss or obesity, sweating, and heat regulation problems.
Treatment: In the case of goiter with normal laboratory parameters – caused by iodine deficiency – the first step of treatment is iodine replacement. An alternative treatment option is oral administration of a thyroid hormone containing drug. Surgery is required in case of goiters causing local symptoms, not responding to iodine or thyroid hormone replacement, or showing cancerous degeneration. Additional radioiodine treatment may be required after the surgical treatment of malignant thyroid tumors. The healing result of thyroid surgery is very good and it does not change the patient’s activity and ability to work. You can read more about the surgery here.
Proctology is a branch of surgery specifically dealing with the examination and treatment of rectum diseases. At the proctology clinic, we perform the examination and treatment of hemorrhoids (external, internal or thrombotic hemorrhoid nodules), perianal inflammatory processes (abscesses, fistulas), benign tumors (polyps), and various other lesions of the lower section of the rectum and the anus (anal fissure, chronic pain, itching).
In acute cases, surgical intervention may be performed under local anesthesia/general anesthesia immediately after the examination (thrombotic hemorrhoids, abscesses).
In case of conditions that don’t improve upon conservative therapy (suppositories, ointments, medications), a planned surgical intervention may be performed as a one-day surgery (external, internal hemorrhoids, rectal rupture, rectal polyps, rectal polyps).
Of course, we also provide follow-up care afterwards.
What happens in a personal consultation?
At Emineo Private Hospital, the surgeon will discuss possible treatments with the patient after examination and reviewing any previous documentation. If surgery is recommended, the surgeon informs the patient about the course of the surgery and what needs to be done before surgery.
Possible therapies, or:
What do you need to know about laparoscopic surgeries?
Advances of technology have made it possible to perform a significant proportion of abdominal surgical procedures laparoscopically, making incisions of only a few cm on the abdomen. This method is associated with decreased surgical burden, shorter hospital stay and healing period, less pain and more aesthetic wound healing. Ideally one day after the operation, the patient can leave our private institution. A return to full preoperative activity is usually expected after two weeks. All of these can, of course, be affected by the presence of comorbidities, possible complications, the patient’s condition, and the nature of his/her job.
Introduction of video consultation
Even in the epidemiological situation related to the coronavirus, we endeavor to resolve the complaints of our patients and reduce their pain. To this end, we have launched our video consultation service, in which our specialists are at our patients’ service on-line.