Campbell M R, Billica R D, Jennings R, Johnston S
Department of Medical Operations, NASA-Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
Surg Endosc. 1996 Feb;10(2):111-7. doi: 10.1007/BF00188354.
Performing a surgical procedure in weightlessness has been shown not to be any more difficult than in a 1g environment if the requirements for the restraint of the patient, operator, and surgical hardware are observed. The feasibility of performing a laparoscopic surgical procedure in weightlessness, however, has been questionable. Concerns have included the impaired visualization from the lack of gravitational retraction of the bowel and from floating debris such as blood.
In this project, laparoscopic surgery was performed on a porcine animal model in the weightlessness of parabolic flight.
Visualization was unaffected due to the tethering of the bowel by the elastic mesentery and the strong tendency for debris and blood to adhere to the abdominal wall due to surface tension forces.
There are advantages to performing a laparoscopic instead of an open surgical procedure in a weightless environment. These will become important as the laparoscopic support hardware is miniaturized from its present form, as laparoscopic technology becomes more advanced, and as more surgically capable crew medical officers are present in future long-duration space-exploration missions.
如果遵守对患者、操作者和手术硬件的约束要求，在失重环境下进行外科手术并不比在1g环境下更困难。然而，在失重环境下进行腹腔镜手术的可行性一直受到质疑。担忧包括由于肠道缺乏重力回缩以及血液等漂浮碎片导致的视野受损。
在本项目中，在抛物线飞行的失重状态下，对猪动物模型进行了腹腔镜手术。
由于弹性肠系膜对肠道的系留作用以及由于表面张力碎片和血液强烈粘附于腹壁的倾向，视野未受影响。
在失重环境下进行腹腔镜手术而非开放手术有诸多优势。随着腹腔镜支持硬件从目前的形式小型化、腹腔镜技术变得更加先进以及未来长期太空探索任务中有更多具备手术能力的船员医务人员，这些优势将变得至关重要。
