Oh yes, we have advanced so far in medicine that your organs will one day be removed from your mouth.

When you think of notes, you usually think of long boring classes and future carpal tunnel syndrome. You don’t usually think of removing your gall bladder or your appendix.

Well a new surgery entitled Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery, aka NOTES, is the most contemporary way of removing diseased organs. But this is no ordinary surgery. It’s natural. There are minimal or no external incisions and the diseased organ is removed from a natural opening in the body, i.e. the vagina, rectum or mouth. Oh yes, we have advanced so far in medicine that your organs will one day be removed from your mouth. The surgery was introduced in 2005 at the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons and American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Summit as a way to improve patient care and recovery. It was remarked to still include much clinical research but in April 2007, Dr Marc Bessel led the surgery and successfully removed a woman’s gall bladder through her vagina at New York- Presbyterian Hospital. The way natural surgery works is that instead of making an initial incision through one’s abdomen, surgeons make an incision through a natural opening and use an endoscope to guide through the body. A small external incision, if needed, is then made to help with the removal process and then the organ is removed through the initial opening.

Although this surgery sounds risky on paper, it allows for shorter recovery time, less pain, and eliminates scarring. Also, since it is still being researched for effectiveness only surgeons who have a large amount of experience using endoscopes or performing a similar surgery called a laparoscopy are qualified to operate. Is this the surgery of the future? Possibly. It eliminates all things people generally complain about with surgery, but it all sounds too good to be true. No scars. No pain. No long hospital stays. But in order for me to consider this type of surgery, if I ever need by gall bladder removed, there will have to be many more instances of success. One day no one will have any scars to show off during bathing suit season.

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