Platform for the Advancement of Endoscopic Surgery, Single Port Access, Flexible Surgery,
and
NOTES (Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery)
Several years ago, leaders in minimally-invasive surgery and endoscopy conceptualized the idea of operating on organs inside the abdomen by accessing the abdominal cavity through the body’s natural orifices instead of through the skin and abdominal wall. In 2005 a group of these physicians formed NOSCAR (Natural Orifice Surgical Consortium for Assessment and Research). This group, in partnership with industry, outlined the requirements to safely perform NOTES.
USGI designed the Incisionless Operating Platform to answer many of the requirements for incisionless procedures set forth by NOSCAR (http://www.noscar.org/whitepaper.html). The Incisionless Operating Platform offers a stable operating platform, a level view of the operating field and access for multiple, robust surgical tools – vital features for incisionless surgery tools that traditional endoscopes and endoscopic instruments do not provide.
Operating on abdominal organs through the natural orifices has the potential to offer patients less pain, shorter hospital stays, reduced risk of wound hernias and infection and no external scars. In the future, surgeons may be able to carry out flexible surgery procedures with the patient under deep sedation rather than general anesthesia, further reducing procedure risk, recovery time and expense.
Today, surgeons are using the IOP platform in a growing number of flexible surgery procedures, including the first natural orifice gall bladder removals in humans in the U.S.
A wide number of other incisionless surgical procedures may eventually be performed through the body’s natural orifices including, cholecystectomy, bowel resection, appendectomy, ovary removal, tubal ligation, liver biopsy, and various diagnostic procedures.
| Cholecystectomy |