Keeping in Touch

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Hi! Recently, Pete Geier and I had an opportunity to visit the Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery. Dr. Scott Melvin showed us just how the center takes a multidisciplinary approach to excellence in patient care, clinical training, research and outcomes studies and I wanted to share with you what we learned about this unique OSUMC program.

Minimally invasive surgery offers many benefits. It uses new technologies to perform operations through several small incisions in the skin. A camera, or videoscope, and specialized instruments are inserted through these tiny openings, eliminating the need for a large, conventional incision. Carbon dioxide gas may be used to expand the body cavity, providing the surgeon with the space needed to perform the operation. When the operation is completed the gas is released and the instruments removed, leaving only a relatively small incision.

These tiny incisions used in minimally invasive surgery replace the long, traditional ones that often cut through large amounts of skin and muscle. Patients benefit from less post-operative pain and they recover more quickly. Often the hospital stay is brief and patients can expect to return to their normal activities in just a matter of days. Those undergoing similar "open" operations usually require more lengthy hospitalizations and much, much longer recovery periods.

Here at OSU, we have had a Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery since 1995 and it continues to grow.

Recently, the center received a three year grant that will help support education and training. This funding will also help grow research fellowship opportunities and it will allow the Center to add a variety of structured programs in laparoscopic education for residents, fellows, and medical students, as well as for practicing surgeons.

Over the past few years, a completely new minimally invasive surgical technique has emerged, pioneered by the efforts of The Ohio State University. Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery, or NOTES, is the process of performing surgery through naturally existing orifices, thus eliminating the need for external incisions. It is a trend that is gaining interest in the surgical community. The Center is focused on continued development of technology and techniques for NOTES, with the hope that someday common surgical procedures can be totally incisionless. Our team at OSU leads the world in performing the most transgastric procedures.

I’d like to thank Dr Melvin and his team for showing us the Center and telling us more about their achievements. If you’d like to learn more or even watch a short video of a procedure, you can visit the Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery’s web page on the Medical Center web site – just go to CMIS.osu.edu.

Well, have a great week!