Heading the section on paediatric surgery for in Capital Health, Niall Jones who is a Paediatric Gastrointestinal Specialist at The Royal London Hospital and the Portland Hospital for Women and Children explains his own philosophy for performing important operations on children.

“Keyhole techniques have transformed many areas of surgery in recent years. While conventional keyhole instruments can be used with adults and most children, for very young infants under the age of 6 months or weighing less than 5kg, they are simply too big. The use of smaller diameter, finder, laparoscopic equipment has a number of advantages over open surgery, for example, we can avoid invasive access into the abdomen, which can be quite traumatic for a newborn. As the incisions are so small, babies recover quicker, can begin feeding normally quicker and can go home with their parents sooner; they will also have less noticeable scars as they get older.”

The BBC have followed up and in the subsequent article, Niall Jones said; “Keyhole techniques have transformed many areas of surgery in recent years”. The BBC video demonstrating his technique can be seen here.

Tags: keyhole surgery, niall jones, portland hospital