 In March 2008 Jeff Scholz visited UC San Diego Medical Center for an emergency appendix removal. Days later, he was back to work, eating pizza, and doing sit ups with no outward signs of surgery. No stitches or incisions, not even a scratch. How was the appendix removed? Through the mouth, of course.
“Strange but true, we are testing new techniques at UC San Diego Medical Center to remove diseased organs through natural openings such as the mouth or vagina,” says Santiago Horgan, M.D., director of the UCSD Center for the Future of Surgery. “Patients who are part of the clinical trial have had successful surgeries while reporting little to no pain.”
Horgan, primary investigator of the research, is testing the idea of natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery, commonly referred to as NOTES. In Scholz’s case the appendix was removed by placing a thin medical device down the throat and into the stomach where a small incision is made to get into the abdominal cavity. The instrument, made by USGI Medical , then reaches out to grasp and remove the appendix which is then pulled back through the stomach, up the throat and out the mouth.
Horgan and his team have learned that both the wall of the stomach and the vagina are capable of healing rapidly following surgery. The biggest challenge for advancing incision-free surgery is having the right tools.
“The UCSD Center for the Future of Surgery is partnering with medical device companies to develop the most delicate and functional tools possible,” says Horgan. “And looking to the future, this scarless surgery technique may become the gold standard for appendix and gallbladder removal as well as a new technique from removing cancerous growths.”
“There will come a day when a routine doctor’s visit includes a simple blood test to scan for cancer,” says Mark Talamini, M.D., professor and chair of surgery at UCSD Medical Center sees “no-cut” surgery as the next step in personalized medicine. “Let’s say, hypothetically, that your test results show a risk for stomach cancer. An incision-free procedure is done to view and evaluate the stomach. A suspicious area of tissue is detected and removed. You go home will the earliest stages of cancer removed. The disease is eliminated even before it has a chance to grow.”
The Center for the Future of Surgery is pioneering these new frontiers with a newly formed organized research group called the Institute of Engineering in Medicine at UC San Diego. The new Institute is designed to bring together physicians, scientists and engineers to conceptualize, develop and bring to reality the future tools and treatments of 21st century health care.
|
