Which practice helps mitigate smoke during laparoscopic dissection?

Which practice helps mitigate smoke during laparoscopic dissection?

• A. Use suction and controlled energy delivery
• B. Increase energy to speed
• C. Open the port to vent
• D. Ignore smoke

Answer: (A)

Smoke during laparoscopic dissection obscures vision and makes precise tissue handling harder. The best way to address this is to combine active smoke removal with careful energy use. Using suction evacuates the plume from the operative field, keeping the view clear, while delivering energy in a controlled, lower, or intermittent manner minimizes tissue vaporization and plume formation. This approach preserves the working space and visualization, enabling safer dissection and reducing the chance of inadvertent injury. Increasing energy would generate more smoke, opening the port to vent disrupts the pneumoperitoneum and is less efficient at clearing the field, and ignoring smoke offers no solution.