Desert Women’s Care offers a revolutionary minimally invasive hysterectomy

Pioneering Women’s Health Care

Desert Women’s Care offers a revolutionary minimally invasive hysterectomy with less post-operative pain, minimal scarring, and a quicker return to normal life.

By Michelle Talsma Everson

A hysterectomy can be recommended to women of all ages for a variety of health reasons. Like any surgery and medical decision, accepting the diagnosis and navigating the process can be an overwhelming experience.

One option for patients to consider is a minimally invasive hysterectomy. The procedure often has less post-operative pain, minimal scarring, and a quicker return to normal life. Richard Haines Demir, M.D., a nationally recognized pelvic surgeon at Desert Women’s Care in Scottsdale, says that the procedure is a great route for many women.

“For someone who has been told they need an abdominal hysterectomy in a hospital the greatest thing I can do for them is do the surgery with little holes and get them back to their life as soon as possible,” Demir says. “We’ve implemented numeral strategies to accelerate the recovery.”

Demir has performed more than 1,450 minimally invasive hysterectomy procedures—including one where a patient’s uterus made the Guinness Book of World Records.

“We now have it to the point where we do the hysterectomy in the surgery center, the woman goes home, treats it with home nursing and, in three to four days, she’s back up and about,” he reflects. “Being a resident 25 years ago people would have a hysterectomy and lay up in the hospital for four days and then they would lay around more at home. Nowadays, the little holes and the minimally invasive procedure combined with early ambulation and being at home, it gets people back to their life dramatically quicker… The old algorithm, even five years ago, we’re done with cutting the abdomen open.”

To do this procedure, Demir uses the latest technology and years worth of research and hands-on experience with minimally invasive surgery. It’s not only hysterectomies that he performs.

“The other procedure that I do that really attracts people from other places is laparoscopic transabdominal cerclage,” he says. “We do it as an out patient and it’s for women who have had a repetitive miscarriage in the third trimester with a diagnosis of cervical insufficiency so these are people who have lost some pregnancies in the 18- to 28-week range. We put a band around the cervix with the laparoscope… It feels good to help a couple have a baby when they’ve had some pretty sad outcomes.”

Another complex procedure that Demir’s team at Desert Women’s Care performs is sacrocolpopexy, which helps women with pelvic organ prolapse.

Demir says that many of his patient cases are complex—and while those may take more time to be done with minimally invasive surgical techniques, it’s well worth the extra effort to avoid open abdominal surgery. While other physicians are also able to do minimally invasive hysterectomies, Demir says that one of the major differences is that his patients get to go home the same day. “I’m not aware of anyone else who offers outpatient minimally invasive procedures; I believe I am the only one who offers this in the state of Arizona,” he adds.

In addition to his successful surgeries—which number in the thousands—Demir has won multiple industry awards, been published in more than 40 papers, and has given presentations on the topic of minimally invasive procedures nationwide. He’s also been highly active in Valley hospitals and medical practices and as a preceptor for local universities.

At Desert Women’s Care, which he helped to found in 2010, he is the director of gynecology, obstetrics, and ultrasound. He’s been practicing medicine in both the Valley and Chicago for more than 25 years.

“If you’ve been told you need a hysterectomy—specifically if you’ve been told you need a hysterectomy with your tummy cut open—those are the ideal candidates to give us a call and evaluate their alternatives to keep them out of the hospital and costs low,” Demir says. “It’s a lifestyle enhancement; there are a lot of ways to reduce periods and control fertility. Again, if a woman has been told she needs it in a bad way with her tummy cut open, we [Desert Women’s Care] are ideal second opinions.”

To learn more about Desert Women’s Care, visit desertwomenscare.com.