Tiny Surgical Instruments Suck Appendix Out of Your Stomach and Into Your Mouth
Posted by Gizmodo US Edition at 5:00 AM on May 12, 2008
The vanity-saturated life of a Gizmodo writer means no scars, visible or otherwise, so this breakthrough procedure for appendicitis is a godsend for those among us who still have the vestigial organ. According to doctors who performed the operation in San Diego, a flexible tube is used to thread miniature surgical instruments down the patient's throat into their stomach. At that point, the fun begins—unless you're an appendix, of course.Once the tools are safely inserted into the patient's gut, a tiny incision is made in the stomach wall to get at the appendix. The inflamed appendix is cut away, grabbed by one of the mini-tools, and bagged in a special mesh pouch. The organ is then pulled back into the stomach and out of the mouth.
The benefits of this new procedure go beyond aesthetic, as pioneering patient and ex-Marine Jeff Scholtz confirmed in a post-op interview. "They told me to take it easy but I felt great. I was eating pizza and doing situps three days later," Scholtz said.
That's right, no week-long downtime or months of low-intensity activity, and no more huge scars from huge incisions. No hernias or infection either, said Santiago Horgan, of the University of San Diego Medical Centre. Doctors say this is the way forward for other procedures, and I'm inclined to agree, so long as we keep the colonoscopy relegated to the rear where it belongs. [Daily Mail]