Mizo Doctor Makes Laparoscopy Affordable

Cost-effective innovation earns Assam surgeon accolades

By Daulat Rahman

Elbert Khiangte

Guwahati, May 10 : Guwahati-based surgeon Elbert Khiangte has improvised a single-port access system for laparoscopic surgeries that not only ensures a scar-free procedure, but is also cost-effective.

He has created the access system using readily available low-cost materials like surgical gloves, towel rings, flexible rings and conventional laparoscopic trocars.

Khiangte said the latest innovation in laparoscopic surgery techniques — single-port access (SPA) surgery — is a procedure in which the surgeon operates on the patient through a single entry point in the abdomen, typically through the navel (or umbilicus). An incision (cut) is required within the depth of the umbilicus, thus ensuring minimal pain for the patient, low blood loss during surgery and minimal visibility of post-operative scars.

However, the procedure involved expensive “access ports”, which added to the overall cost of the procedure, making it unaffordable for many in a state like Assam, he added. “This is the only factor which has prevented us from venturing into the new technology for so long.”

Khiangte’s Improvised Transumbilical E.K. Glove Port did away with the need for using expensive ports, considerably reducing the cost of the procedure. His innovation also won accolades recently at the International Conference on Single Incision Laparoscopic Surgery in Mumbai.

“Two things generally come to the mind of those who undergo surgery. Is it affordable? Will it be scar-free? I have improvised the single-port access system by using readily available materials keeping such things in mind,” Khiangte told The Telegraph.

Khiangte, who is a laparoscopic surgeon at International Hospital here, said his hospital had performed several general and gynaecological surgeries using his improvised port at a very low cost and the performance is at par with standard laparoscopic surgery. The total operation time ranges between 20 and 100 minutes.

Khiangte, whose paper on the innovation has already been published in the Indian Journal of Surgery, Volume 73, said he is ready to share his innovation with government hospitals and charitable organisations to make laparoscopy affordable to all.