N.O.T.E.S. = Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery

Right after the publication of a report of transvaginal cholecystectomy by a team of New York doctors, an independant team of surgeons in France published videos of Operation Anubis.

On April 2nd 2007, at the University Hospital of Strasbourg, Professor Jacques Marescaux and his team, B. Dallemagne, MD, S. Perretta, MD, D. Mutter, MD, PhD, FACS, A. Wattiez, MD, D. Coumaros, MD, successfully performed the first no scar surgery. This first human incisionless operation was carried out using a flexible endoscope for transvaginal cholecystectomy in a 30-year-old woman with symptomatic gallstones.

The New York operation was carried out with laparoscopic ports in place in order to assist in case of problems with the NOTES. However, the French team performed the procedure completely scarless.

You can view the video of the procedure if you register in Websurg.

Another “kembang” moment!!!!!

The HOT MAMA Eastcoastlife appeared in an interview by Martin Lidsey on MartyBLOGs today.

And *drumroll* she names MOI as one of her frequent reads.. woohooo! I’m in cloud nine times nine liao

Have you noticed the river in the banner of my blog? That’s the Merbok river. Sungai Petani sits south of the Merbok river, at the foot of the Mount Jerai. Want to know what’s under the surface of the river?

Take a look (don’t blink):

A package arrived yesterday from the Hijackqueen.

Jessie says she already finished the ones with the CARAMEL in it. Too good to share!

In an effort to reduce the trauma of access to the site of surgery, surgeons are trying out various new approaches. Laparoscopy is one of them.

In New York, surgeons removed a gallbladder through the vagina of a 66-year-old woman for the first time in the US. Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) is a method of performing abdominal surgery through scopes passing via the mouth, anus or vagina. I have seen videos from India of appendicectomy via the mouth and through stomach since 2004.

In another development, a team in Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has been testing the “HeartLander”, a robot which walks on the surface of the heart to reach sites unreacheable by minimal access instruments (like “Moon Lander”, geddit?)

The plan is to insert the HeartLander through an incision below the ribcage, and pass it through a further incision in the membrane that encloses the heart. Surgeons keep track of the device using X-ray video or a magnetic tracker, and control its movements via a joystick.

There’s a video of it functioning at the Newscientist website.

Someday, open surgery will be a thing of the past. There’ll be so many other ways and means to perform various procedures with the most minimal trauma possible. I don’t think that it will be a long way away.