Hillel Yaffe presents: a live broadcast of innovative surgery

For a few hours last week, at the peak of a seminar on “Laparoscopic surgery for pelvic floor rehabilitation,” the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center auditorium became a screening room for innovative pelvic floor rehabilitation surgery, watched live by dozens of specialists and professionals in the fields of gynecology, nursing and physical therapy, who deal with this subject.

First-class guest speakers from around the world, among them Prof. Chris Maher of Australia and Prof. Michael Vardy of New York, USA, participated in the conference, which was initiated and organized by Dr. Benny Feiner, head of the Urogynecological Service of Hillel Yaffe’s Obsetrics and Gynecology Department, and sponsored by the Israel Society for Urogynecology and the Pelvic Floor, and the Israel Society for Gynecological Endoscopy. The two lecturers surveyed the surgical developments in the field of pelvic organ prolapse over the years and particularly the operations caried out by minimally invasive methods (without opening the abdomen and without major incisions). The surgery, which was broadcast live, was an innovative laparoscopic sacrocolpopexy procedure to repair the prolapse of the vaginal wall in a woman who had undergone a hysterectomy, was performed by Prof. Maher himself, and was based on anchoring the vagina to the coccyx using a designated synthetic implant, all through a number of small openings in the abdominal wall.

A photograph of the surgery

As stated, the surgery was transmitted live to the auditorium, and conference participants were able to ask the operating team questions and receive explanations during the operation, while watching a laparoscopic picture on the screen identical to the picture seen by the surgeon. Naturally, the conference aroused great interest, especially in view of the complexity of the surgery and the opportunity to watch one of the world’s leading surgeons operating up close.

Dr. Feiner, who was Prof. Maher’s student in Australia, and is one of the few doctors in Israel who is skilled in operating according to this method, said that this method contributes immeasurably to solving one of the most widespread and difficult to treat problems among women. “Regrettably, the standard operations do not always provide a long-term solution to restoring a high quality of life to the woman, and this is something which this innovative operation does indeed achieve.”

Prof. Moti Halak, Director of Hillel Yaffe’s Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, also referred during the seminar to the importance of this subject and the great efforts the department makes to offer a comprehensive solution for women who suffer from pelvic floor problems, mentioning the good results over the years among women who receive correct, comprehensive treatment.

Transmission of the surgery in the conference auditorium

From right to left: Dr. Gil Levy, Prof. Christopher Maher, Prof. Michael Vardy, Dr. Benny Feiner, Prof. Moti Halak