World Firsts by Cleveland Clinic ...( Advanced Laparoscopic Procedures ...),Health

Advanced Laparoscopic Procedures through the Belly Button: Scar-Free

Surgery

CLEVELAND, Nov. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Cleveland Clinic urologists recently performed a series of ground-breaking single-port surgeries: laparoscopic nephrectomy (entire kidney removal), bilateral pyeloplasty (uretero-pelvic junction repair), ileal ureter replacement, and psoas hitch uretero- neocystostomy (for ureteral obstruction). Urologic surgeon Mihir Desai, MD, head of endourology, performed these surgeries, each a world first, trans- umbilically by inserting all necessary instruments through a single access port inserted into the patients' bellybuttons. No extra-umbilical skin incisions were created. The procedures were enabled by the r-Port(TM), a novel surgical access device developed by Advanced Surgical Concepts Ltd. of Ireland.

Dr. Desai's accomplishments, accepted for publication on October 26th, 2007 by the British Journal of Urology International and available on-line next week, are the first peer-reviewed publication of single-port laparoscopy in the field of urology. "Trans-umbilical single-port, scar-free surgery is the next major advance in laparoscopic surgery," said Dr. Desai. "During traditional laparoscopy, 3-6 small abdominal incisions are made to insert a camera and instruments to perform surgical procedures. Our novel single-port approach, when performed trans-umbilically, leaves no visible skin scar, since the belly-button hides the incision site. Post-operative pain appears to be reduced, compared to traditional open or laparoscopic surgery," he said. Dr. Desai added that "all surgical steps in these complex reconstructive procedures were replicated in the single port approach without any short- cuts."

Cleveland Clinic urologists have taken the lead in developing single-port techniques. They are the first US institution to use the r-Port(TM) from Advanced Surgical Concepts, Ltd. The r-Port(TM) enables su
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