Pneumoperitoneum

Bariatric Surgery for morbid obesity is indicated when BMI > 40 kg/m2 without comorbidities or BMI > 35 kg/m2 with co-morbidities. Different surgeries performed for obesity are classified as restrictive, malabsorptive, and hybrid procedures.
Because laparoscopic surgery has increased the interest and growth of bariatric surgery, soaring demand for laparoscopic bariatric surgery from patients has boosted the boom in bariatric surgery worldwide.
Achieving pneumoperitoneum is the initial and one of the most crucial steps in any laparoscopic surgery, giving the surgeon working space to operate on a particular organ/organ system. Usually, pneumoperitoneum is achieved either by a closed technique with a veress needle or an open technique with many variations like finger assisted or the conventional open technique.
Given the excess amount of subcutaneous fat in morbidly obese patients, putting a veress needle to achieve pneumoperitoneum successfully is particularly challenging which takes a toll on the operating surgeon when he/she is trying to locate the midline one can either overshoot to cause omental emphysema or undershoot getting lost in the subcutaneous fat. It is usually done in the supra umbilical area. Sometimes, due to previous surgical scars other sites are preferred.
Sonography is routinely used by radiologists with negligible radiation exposure. Anesthesiologists in the operating room have used it for many assisted procedures like central line insertion / giving nerve blocks. It can also be used in obese patients undergoing metabolic surgery to assist in creating pneumoperitoneum by a veress needle.
Advantages of Intraoperative ultrasonography in this particular study :
1. To quantify the thickness of subcutaneous fat
2. To visualise the linea alba and guide the veress needle safely into the peritoneal cavity
3. Real-time visualisation of the pneumoperitoneum created
4. Avoid complications like omental emphysema, bowel or vascular injury

This study aims to investigate the effect of varying insufflation pressures on post-operative pain and adequacy of surgical field visualization among patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery with a minimally invasive gynecologic surgeon.

The field of robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery increases all the time. Older and more fragile patients which are not suitable for major open surgery could be scheduled for robotic- assisted surgery. The peroperative anesthesiological challenges and stresses during this type of surgery could anyway be even more prominent.
The extreme positioning of patients during robotic surgery in the pelvis, often 30 degrees head down tilting (Trendelenburg positioning), should increase the work load of the heart significantly. There are no studies concerning fragile patients with heart failure during these conditions.
In this study the circulatory effects in patients with normal heart function and preexisting heart failure will be studied during robotic surgery in extreme Trendelenburg positioning
During surgery the work load and performance of the heart will be monitored using an esophageal doppler and optical spectrophotometry measuring regional saturation of the brain. This study can identify patients at risk of developing critical circulatory failure during this type of surgery.