With a recent first of its kind surgery, physicians at Mayo Clinic in Arizona have developed a new surgical procedure for the treatment of prostate cancer using natural orifices - signaling the next step in the evolution of minimally invasive surgery.
“the needs of the patient come first.”
Removing the prostate is a common treatment for patients with prostate cancer, which affects one in six men in the U.S. according to the American Cancer Society. Mitchell Humphreys, M.D., urologist at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, said that the latest advances in the surgical treatment of the disease involve using the body's own natural orifices as access points instead of making incisions through the skin. These types of procedures, Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery, or NOTES, have advanced over the past several years and now, it is believed for the first time, a NOTES procedure has been perfected to remove the prostate.
"The reason this hasn't been done in prostate surgery before is because of the challenge of rejoining or suturing the bladder back to the urethra," Dr. Humphreys said. "To do this, we have developed specialized techniques and instruments that allow us to do all the work through the urethra, preventing the need for any incisions in the skin whatsoever."
The unique tools, developed in conjunction with Mayo Clinic in Arizona, are used in a procedure called Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgical Radical Prostatectomy or NOTES RP. The instruments are inserted through the penis and an innovative technique is used to remove the entire prostate. Surgeons then rejoin the internal tissues via specialized instruments designed to work through the urethra. Patients benefit from the procedure because there are no incisions, little risk of bleeding and are usually able to leave the hospital within 24 hours.
The first patient who had a NOTES RP has done well and has had no problems or complications throughout any part of the operation in late June.
"This really shows that the impossible is now possible and represents a paradigm shift not only in the way we look at diseases, but also how we surgically treat disease," Dr. Humphreys said.