What is general surgery?

General surgeons receive specialized training and experience in the diagnosis, preoperative and postoperative care, and surgical management of diseases involving your neck, gastrointestinal tract, skin, breast, endocrine system, and abdominal organs.

Dr. Cohen specializes in various types of surgery, including skin and soft tissue, abdominal, breast, and endocrine.

Skin and soft tissue surgeries:

• Melanoma surgery
• Benign and malignant soft tissue tumors

Abdominal surgery:

• Sarcoma resection
• Gastrointestinal surgery
• Colon and rectal surgery
• Hernia surgery
• Gallbladder surgery
• Spleen surgery

Breast surgery:

• Benign and malignant tumors
• Breast reconstruction

Endocrine surgery:

• Thyroid surgery
• Parathyroid surgery

Dr. Cohen provides advanced treatments for several types of cancer.

What procedures are frequently performed in general surgery?

The wide range of health conditions treated by general surgeons represents a vast number of surgical procedures. These are a few examples of common general surgery procedures:

• Adrenalectomy
• Appendectomy
• Colectomy
• Hernia repair
• Thyroidectomy
• Lumpectomy
• Mastectomy
• Cholecystectomy

No matter what type of surgical procedure you need, Dr. Cohen talks with you about your symptoms and concerns, reviews your lab work and medical history, and develops customized care that fits your needs.

What does it mean to have minimally invasive general surgery?

Dr. Cohen specializes in minimally invasive general surgery, which means your procedure is done using a few small incisions rather than one long incision. The key piece of equipment, the laparoscope, is a long, narrow tool that easily fits through a small incision.

The laparoscope contains lighting and a video camera that transmits a magnified, high-definition image to a monitor. This gives Dr. Cohen the ability to see the surgical site better than he could during open surgery. Surgical tools are inserted through long tubes inserted through other small incisions and controlled from outside your body.

Minimally invasive surgery is less traumatic than open surgery. As a result, you have less bleeding during surgery, less pain after surgery, and your recovery is quicker. Patients also like the fact that the surgical scar is barely visible.

In some cases, minimally invasive surgery allows you to have an outpatient procedure so you can go home the same day.

What is robotic surgery?

Dr. Cohen has extensive experience performing minimally invasive general surgery using the da Vinci® surgical system. He fully controls the robotic arms, which are more precise and have a better range of motion than human hands. At the same time, the robotic arms are small enough to access tight areas inside your body without causing trauma.

If you face the possibility of general surgery, call Jason Cohen, MD, FACS, or schedule an appointment online.