Omentectomy

An omentectomy (pronounced “oh-men-TEK-tuh-me”) is a surgical procedure to remove all or part of your omentum. This is a layer of fatty tissue and blood vessels that covers some of the organs in your abdominal cavity, like your stomach and intestines.

Omentectomies are mainly for cancer treatment. Your healthcare team may recommend omentectomy if you have cancer in your omentum or cancer nearby that’s likely to spread there. Surgeons usually do it as part of a larger cancer surgery, not as a single procedure.

It’s rare for cancer to begin in this tissue. But it’s common for cancer to spread to it from other places in your abdomen. Especially your ovaries and stomach.

Sometimes, providers remove the omentum to look for microscopic evidence of cancer in it. This helps them determine the cancer stage and how they should treat it.

How should I prepare for this procedure?

Before surgery, you’ll meet with a team of specialists to discuss the procedure. They’ll tell you about the risks and benefits of the surgery. They’ll check your overall health to make sure you’re fit for general anesthesia and the operation.

What happens during an omentectomy?

Many factors can affect the process of an omentectomy, like:

• The surgical method: It may involve small cuts, using laparoscopic or robotic surgery methods. Or it may be an open abdominal surgery where your surgeons make one long cut in your abdomen.
• The type: A total omentectomy removes your entire omentum. A partial omentectomy removes a portion of it.
• The extent of cancer: An omentectomy to remove cancer is often just one part of a larger operation. If you have cancer in other places, your surgeon will want to remove it all at once.

Surgeons commonly combine omentectomy with one or several other operations, including:

• Hysterectomy to remove your uterus
• Salpingectomy to remove one or both of your fallopian tubes
• Oophorectomy to remove one or both of your ovaries
• Prostatectomy to remove your prostate
• Gastrectomy to remove part or all of your stomach
• Colectomy to remove part or all of your colon
• Retroperitoneal lymph node dissection to remove one or several lymph nodes in your abdomen
• Cytoreductive or debulking surgery to remove cancer throughout your abdomen

What are the potential benefits and risks of this procedure?

An omentectomy can:

• Help determine the cancer stage
• Help treat cancer
• Cure cancer
• Help treat fluid buildup in your abdomen (ascites)

How this surgery will affect you depends on your unique case.

If your surgeon finds cancer in your omentum but the cancer is limited, removing it may be a cure. If the cancer has spread to many places, removing as much of it as possible may improve your outcome.

All surgeries carry a small risk of complications, including:

• Anesthesia issues
• Bleeding
• Infection
• Injury to nearby organs

A specific complication related to omentectomy is bowel obstruction. Bands of scar tissue in your abdominal cavity can create a partial or complete blockage in your bowels.

What happens after this procedure?

You'll likely spend several days recovering in the hospital. Your stay may be shorter if your surgeon uses small cuts during the surgery. It may be longer if you have several organs removed. Your surgeon will discuss the results of the surgery and any important laboratory findings.

Together, you’ll review your condition and the next steps in your treatment plan. Surgery for cancer is often followed by other treatments to make sure that no cancer cells are left behind. This might mean radiation therapy or chemotherapy.

What is the recovery time?

Your recovery time depends on the type of surgery you had and how extensive it was. Smaller operations may take only a few weeks of recovery. A major operation removing multiple organs may take up to eight weeks of recovery.

Your healthcare team will let you know what to expect.