One Tiny Incision
UCSD Surgeons Perform New Ultra-Minimally Invasive Gallbladder Removal

A pioneering surgery took place at UCSD on September 11 when Drs. Santiago Horgan and Mark A. Talamini removed a patient’s gallbladder using only one tiny incision.  It was the first such procedure to be performed in the Southwestern United States.

Dr. Horgan is Director of Minimally Invasive Surgery and Director of the Center for Treatment of Obesity at UCSD. Dr. Talamini is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery.  

Drs. Horgan and Talamini used a new, ultra-minimally invasive technique called NOTES, or Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery.  In a NOTES procedure, surgeons insert surgical instruments into the abdomen through a natural orifice, such as the navel or the mouth and esophagus.

In this case, the gallbladder was removed through the patient’s vagina via a small incision in the patient’s navel.  The successful surgery was part of a UCSD clinical trial of NOTES techniques. 

 “This is a very exciting prospect,” said Dr. Talamini.  “We are taking minimally invasive surgery one step further in terms of reducing pain, scarring, and recovery time.”

Drs. Talamini and Horgan are among the world’s leaders in refining and testing NOTES techniques.  Dr. Horgan, also a Professor of Surgery at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina, recently performed four groundbreaking NOTES procedures there. 

Both surgeons are conducting the UCSD clinical trial of the procedure, which is funded by the new Natural Orifice Surgery Consortium for Assessment and Research (NOSCAR^™). 

If further studies confirm that NOTES is effective and safe, surgeons may soon offer NOTES surgeries to their patients.

For more information about this pioneering surgery by Drs. Horgan and Talamini, see the UCSD Medical Center news release.

In other NOTES news, the UCSD Department of Surgery and the UCSD Center for the Future of Surgery are presenting the second UCSD hands-on NOTES course in October 2008.