Now, a surgery sans scars and anaesthesia

Researchers have developed a method whereby patients can not only avoid after surgery scars, but also general anaesthesia.

London, May 1 : Researchers have developed a method whereby patients can not only avoid after surgery scars, but also general anaesthesia.

Transgastric surgery, or natural orifice translumenal endosurgery is performed by moving flexible surgical tools and a camera in through the patient's mouth to reach the abdominal cavity via a cut in the stomach lining.

Once the operation is done, the surgeon draws any removed tissue back out through the patient's mouth and sews up the hole in the stomach.

At the Ohio State University Medical Center, in Columbus, US, 10 patients were diagnosed for suspected pancreatic cancer by means of procedures that entered their bodies through their mouths.

Two women have had their gall bladders removed by surgeons who reached the abdominal cavity through an incision in the vagina.

However the method is not free of risks, which include the possibility of internal bleeding, or post-operative pain caused by inflating the abdominal cavity with carbon dioxide to make it easier to work in.

Transgastric surgery is a wing of keyhole surgery, in which slim surgical tools are inserted into the abdomen through small incisions avoiding a large cut in the belly.

"However, because transgastric surgeons reach the abdominal cavity through the mouth, there is no need for an incision, so patients should be back up on their feet much faster," New Scientist quoted J�rgen Hochberger at St Bernward Hospital in Hildesheim, Germany, as saying.

Going in through the stomach can also lessen the risk of post-operative infections with, the drug-resistant superbug MRSA, which often lives on the skin.

"If you don't have skin incisions then you don't get MRSA," says Paul Swain, an endosurgeon at Imperial College, London, UK.

"Stomach acid is pretty cleansing. Not many bugs can stand it," Swain said.

According to Per-Ola Park, who has been leading research at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden, said that the treatment tested on animals cannot help gauge levels of pain.

"While highly complex procedures have been successfully demonstrated in pigs, it is difficult to gauge details like levels of pain in animal tests, Park said.

ANI