Doctor’s at New York’s Presbyterian Hospital have been participating in an ongoing clinical trial to remove a woman’s gallbladder without entering the body cavity through her abdomen. The clinical trial is only for women at this time because the procedure is performed though a small incision in the back of the uterus using an endoscope. After the gallbladder has been detached, the incision is sutured. The results are promising; less pain, reduced healing time and no visible scars.

Natural Orifice surgery has been employed since the 1980′s, but mainly in the gastrointestinal tract. This new procedure is called NOTES (Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery). Gallbladder removal surgery; called a cholecystectomy, is a commonly performed surgery to end the pain associated with gallstones. Any external incision is at risk for infection from opportunistic bacteria such as MRSA, a growing concern in hospitals as many strains are resitant to multiple types of antibiotics; so the NOTES procedure will reduce the number of infections and time of hospital stays. Good for your health and your pocketbook. Currently 90% of cholecystectomies are performed laproscopically with a small incision into the abdomen; a vast improvement over the 10 inch incision needed before laproscopic surgery was common.

New York-Presbyterian Hospital also offers this type of surgery for appendectomies, abominal explorations and biopsies. Unfortuneately, for men, these surgeries are only available through the uterus, but doctors are working on ways to go through the anal cavity or mouth; sounds unpleasant, but less unpleasant than a big cut into your abdomen!

For more information, patients may call (212) 305-9506.

An full copy of this press release can be found at Eureka Alert.