Acceptance and Reliance of Laparoscopic Surgery Among Mosul City Population

Abstract

The study is designed to evaluate the confidence, reliance and the degree of acceptance of laparoscopic surgical procedures among Mosul city population after 15 years of work in this field of surgery. This is a prospective data collection study. Participants were eight hundred persons, all of them from Mosul city with complete normal health at time of evaluation; all of them were above 18 years of age. The main outcome measures: The persons involved were divided into 4 groups according to their literate and educational level, each group composed of 200 persons, the first group (literate medical personnel) composed of medical doctors of various specialties, the second group (literate non medical personnel) composed of persons who were graduated from various colleges, apart from medical one. The third group (partially literate personnel) included those who did not complete the secondary school. the fourth group (low literate personnel) included those who did not completed the primary school. The questioners asked the following questions: 1-Did you know what laparoscopic surgery means? A special information score was used to evaluate the questioner knowledge. To those who answer yes for the first question and the information score was acceptable, the second question was: 2-Do you prefer this type of surgery to be used on you or on one of your first relative if feasible and needed? 3-If the answer for question 2 is yes, please tell us why. 4-If the answer for question 2 is no, please tell us why. The data were collected and comparison was done among the groups. All the medical persons were aware about laparoscopic surgery, 183 agreed to underwent such procedure if needed during the coming time, 160 of the second group knew what is laparoscopic surgery and 123 accepted to be used on them if needed, 118 of the third group knew what is laparoscopic surgery and 80 agreed to be used on them, while 85 of the fourth group had information about laparoscopic surgery but only 42 of them accepted it to be used on them if needed. Those who accepted laparoscopic surgery did so because they think that, it is more cosmetic, less painful and needs less hospitalization time, while those who refused it, did so because they afraid from dangerous instrument, the risk of complication and conversion. In conclusion, laparoscopic surgery is a well known surgical procedure among population in Mosul city, it gained acceptance and confidence especially in literate persons, but it needs more verification for low literate population. Cosmetic, less hospitalization and less post operative pain are the stocks for acceptance while complications, conversion and untrusting instrument and surgeon are the reasons for refusal of laparoscopic surgery.