As a branch of general surgery, we have to deal with cancer types related to many tissue and organ systems. Among these are thyroid cancers, breast cancer, esophagus cancer, stomach cancer, colon cancer, liver-gallbladder-biliary tract and pancreatic cancers. As in all cancers of tissue and organ systems, early diagnosis and treatment is life-saving in cancers of general surgery specialty.
The golden key to effective surgical treatment is early recognition of your disease. Therefore, recently emerged;
Decreased appetite
Weight loss
Weakness
Nausea
Vomiting
Difficulty swallowing
Palpable mass presence
Jaundice
Pain resistant to painkillers (especially abdominal and back pain)
Rectal bleeding
Great ablution order distortion (constipation and especially hear a need to make frequent bowel movements, feeling dışkılayıp relax without leaving the toilet in the bathroom with small parts that tenez presence )
If there are findings, it is important to consult a health institution without wasting time. Remember that early diagnosis saves lives.
Cancer surgery can be applied to all patients diagnosed with cancer. There are two options for the surgical treatment to be applied. The first of these is the process of removing the cancer tissue, which we call curative surgical treatment, completely and surgically so that there is no visible cancer tissue left. The second alternative in cancer surgery is palliative surgical treatment . This form of treatment aims to leave a part of the tumor tissue that cannot be removed and to remove as much tumor tissue as possible, if the tumor is recognized in its advanced stage. Palliative surgical treatment can also be performed to relieve or reduce symptoms (intestinal obstruction, jaundice, pain, etc.) caused by tumor tissue that cannot be removed.
Curative surgical treatment is the most effective method in disease control and survival. Curative surgery can only be performed if the disease is diagnosed at an early stage. For this reason, your application to us without wasting time in the presence of some findings that did not exist before is important in terms of early recognition and effective treatment of your disease.
A sine qua non for a safe surgery is a thorough and thorough patient evaluation before surgery.
For this purpose, the first thing to be planned is a detailed patient-doctor interview. After this interview, your doctor;
You have reached your physical data (height, weight, BMI etc.),
Learned what your expectations are from the surgery,
Learned the physical and psychological damage caused by your current complaints,
Have a good command of which tissue and organ system your complaints may be related to,
By making a comment about your general health status, you will have decided what preparations should be made for the surgery to be planned.
The next step is to make a detailed pre-operative evaluation in the hospital. At this stage, studies are carried out on both the diagnosis of your disease (biopsy and pathological examination), and the prevalence and clinical staging. At hospital;
Detailed blood tests,
Abdominal ultrasonography,
Computed tomography (whole body tomography by giving oral and intravenous drugs in order to clarify the presence or absence of the tumor, its regional spread and metastasis status),
Stomach endoscopy (according to need)
Lung X-ray,
Respiratory function tests (as needed),
Biopsy and pathology procedure for suspected target tissue
Doppler ultrasonography of your veins in case of doubt,
ECG, Echo cardiography tests (according to need),
Cardiologist examination (according to need),
Internal medicine specialist examination,
By evaluating the anesthesiologist, it is evaluated whether you are suitable for a safe operation.
Tumor surgery can be performed by open or closed (laparoscopic or robotic) surgery, depending on the tissue and organ systems that the disease originates from and the experience and preference of your surgeon.
If your surgery is planned to be performed on the digestive system;
In general, it is beneficial to start consuming watery food 1-2 days before the surgery, to have your bowels empty during the surgery and to make your toilet need later and easier afterwards.
If you are using blood thinners, you should definitely warn your doctor about this and give your doctor time to stop these drugs and start alternative drugs.
It is okay to use drugs other than blood thinners, which you have to use routinely, until the night of the surgery. Blood pressure medication, heart medications can be drunk with a little water on the morning of the surgery, within the knowledge of your doctor, at least 2 hours before the operation.
If you smoke, it is absolutely necessary to quit smoking at least 1 week before the surgery or to reduce it to the minimum possible level. This is a situation that will directly affect your postoperative lung performance.
The night before the surgery, you should generally stop all solid or liquid food intake at around 22-23 o’clock, and be ready with at least 6 hours of fasting the morning of the surgery.
Take a bath at home before you go to the hospital before the operation. Do not forget that you will not have the opportunity to have a bath for at least 2 or 3 days.
Do not wear nylon-containing underwear while coming to the hospital. Nylon underwear can interact with some electrical devices used during surgery and cause skin burns.
It is useful to bring slippers, personal cleaning equipment (toothbrush, toothpaste, shaving kit, etc.) and sufficient amount of underwear with you when you come to the hospital.
Although your hospital stay is affected by many factors such as whether you are hospitalized the night before or on the morning of surgery, how long your surgeon takes the principle of keeping the patient in the hospital after surgery, whether your postoperative surgical problem develops, etc. In surgeries related to the digestive system, it is approximately 3-4 nights.
If you are hospitalized the night before the surgery, you should use protective blood thinners in your home if you are going to bed in the morning of the surgery. This treatment will be planned and applied by your doctor. Before you go to the operating room on the morning of the surgery, you should definitely go to the toilet and meet your needs. The time between being taken from your bed for surgery and returning back to your bed will vary depending on the surgery to be performed, but generally it will be 3-4 hours. All of this time is not the time taken for the surgery, the preparation period in the operating room, your surgery and your post-surgery wake up process are included in this process. Whether you will be admitted to intensive care after the operation or not, the tissue system in which the surgery is applied, your general health status, It will be evaluated and determined by your surgeon and anesthesiologist in relation to the type of surgery and what happened in the surgery. If you have undergone a surgery related to the digestive system and are taken to your bed without the need for intensive care, the process takes place in the days after surgery;
On the day of surgery: Approximately 5-6 hours after returning to your bed, you get up for the first walk with the help of the hospital staff and take a small walk in the room. On the day of the surgery, all your treatments are performed intravenously and food intake is not allowed.
1st day after surgery: Usually, today is the day you start drinking sips of water. Whether to start food intake (drinking water) during this period is decided according to the characteristics of the surgery performed by your surgeon. We also increase the amount of walking during the day and enable you to have a more active day.
2nd day after the operation: If a drain is placed in your operation area and there is no significant amount of fluid coming from the drain, we will pull out your drain and start you with foods such as soup, compote and fruit juice. The second day is the day when the transition to oral nutrition begins. We also allow you to take a bath after your drain is withdrawn. Again, it will be useful to do plenty of walks.
3rd day after surgery: After you see that everything is going well, it is the 3rd day when your discharge planning is made. If there is no problem in your food intake, if we think there are no complications due to surgery, we discharge you on the 3rd day following the operation. The discharge time may be extended for a few more days, depending on the characteristics of your surgery and the patient follow-up criteria of your surgeon.
Although the period of returning to normal life varies depending on the surgery performed and your general health status, you can usually return to your normal life after one week after laparoscopic surgery and 10-12 days after open surgery.
An important issue that should be planned after leaving the hospital is the planning of chemotherapy and radio therapy, which we call medical treatment of the tumor. In general, these treatments are formed after the pathological examination of the tumor tissue piece removed during surgery. Oncology and radiation oncology specialists shape the pathological staging of your disease and the details of the chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment they will do accordingly by evaluating many parameters such as how much of the tumor in your body can be removed by surgery, what kind of properties it has on a cellular basis microscopically, its growth rate and some chemical properties. Generally, postoperative chemo and radiotherapy is allowed 10-15 days after surgery for tissue healing and body reinforcement.
Applying a regular control plan after both surgery and medical treatment is indispensable if there is no treatment process for cancer. For this purpose, surgical, oncology and radiation oncology specialists will create a common follow-up plan and inform you
