Supplies manufactured by Ethicon, like sutures and trocars (used for laparoscopic surgery), would become obsolete because of new product developments by the company.

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In other cases, ectopic pregnancy is treated with laparoscopic surgery.

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After their residencies, most young doctors today are going on to do fellowships, adding one to three further years of training in, say, laparoscopic surgery, or pediatric metabolic disorders, or breast radiology or critical care.

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Then, on the following day, the doctors were asked to perform a series of simulated operations via a virtual reality program used to train doctors in laparoscopic surgery, a form of minimally invasive surgery performed with tiny incisions and a fiber-optic camera.

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In a separate study published this week, Dr. Paraiso and colleagues randomly assigned 53 hysterectomy patients to either laparoscopic or robotic surgery.

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In a January study, Finnish researchers found nearly half of 48 patients who had a Nissen laparoscopic procedure, as the traditional surgery is called, were experiencing bloating and flatulence 15 years later.

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Because robotic surgery is faster and easier to learn than laparoscopic techniques, more surgeons can offer it, the company says.

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