Intravenous cannula: an instrument and a port in laparoscopic surgery

An intravenous cannula was used experimentally as a cheap and scarless alternative to an endoloop to provide retraction and lumen occlusion. It is also a miniport for introduction of ligatures and small catheters.

This possibility was explored during standard procedures such as laparoscopic cholecystectomy and laparoscopic appendectomy.

This technique was successfully applied in 89% of laparoscopic cholecystectomies and 86% of laparoscopic appendectomies.

In many instances a standard port for laparoscopic instruments was unnecessary, despite the fact that the authors did not intentionally work towards port number reduction for laparoscopic procedures.