There are many procedures that can be performed in the office and yet, many physicians take their patients to an outpatient surgical center or even a hospital to perform them. This can lead to unnecessary exposure to general anesthesia or sedation, expensive hospital or surgical center bills and longer time away from work.
Dr. Varkey has made every effort to provide these procedures in her office to avoid some of the above mentioned complications and we encourage you to call our office for a consultation to see if you would be a good candidate for an in office procedure. Below are some of the procedures that she performs in her office with minimal patient discomfort and recovery.
Hysteroscopy
Hysteroscopy refers to a procedure in which a small camera – often only 3-5mm in diameter is inserted into the uterus to aid in visualization of the uterine cavity. It is often performed to investigate abnormal uterine bleeding. We can obtain biopsies, remove polyps and even retained IUDs easily with office hysteroscopy. Dr. Varkey can perform this procedure in the office with the just some oral pain pills and local anesthetic injections. The patients are awake but comfortable and are even able to watch the procedure on a bedside monitor. No general anesthesia, no complicated recovery time.
Dilatation and Curettage (D&C) for a Miscarriage
A D&C is a procedure that is often performed to aid a patient who has miscarried. There are also medications that can be used to aid a patient in passing this tissue but if a patient prefers immediate management of this very distressing situation, an office D&C is often a great option that affords privacy as a well as a quick recovery.
Loop Electro-Excisional Procedure (LEEP)
A LEEP procedure is most often performed to remove precancerous cells from the cervix. Again, it can easily be done with simple local anesthetics. The patients feel no pain and are spared the time, cost and risks of doing the procedure at a surgical center with general or IV anesthetics.