No-scar surgery: Less pain, shorter recovery

No-scar surgery: Less pain, shorter recovery

(William Walker /CNN)


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Editor's note: With our interactive project "Healing the Future," CNN is featuring 10 ideas and inventions that are revolutionizing health care — from the operating table to the kitchen table. Check them all out at CNN.com/healingthefuture.(CNN) — "We probably won't be doing surgery anymore," says Dr. Bradley Needleman, director of the Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery at the Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center, when I ask him about the future of surgery.

Come again?

Three things have plagued surgeons for centuries, he explains: bleeding, pain and infection. But minimally invasive techniques are reducing these threats, and endoscopic procedures are expected to evolve until nearly all surgeries are done without a scalpel.

Surgeons will be operating on everything from the heart to the brain through one of a patient's natural orifices, like the mouth. It's called natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery, or NOTES. Fewer incisions mean fewer infections, less risk of excessive bleeding and shorter recovery times for patients.

Clinical trials are under way on NOTES gallbladder removal, but a surgery to correct acid reflux disease is the only one frequently performed this way today.

Without a clear view of your insides, doctors will need better technology and imaging to assist them in the OR, says Dr. Carlos Pellegrini, head of the department of surgery at the University of Washington.

Today, when a surgeon operates on a tumor, it's difficult for him or her to distinguish between cancerous cells and healthy cells.

But what if surgeons could superimpose a virtual MRI image on top of the real-life organ?

What if they could inject a patient with a dye that makes deadly cells glow?

"You could see exactly where the tumor is and you could make a perfect resection," says Pellegrini.

Surgical robots are becoming smaller and more precise; a surgeon may eventually be able to perform an entire operation by controlling a robot with his or her mind. Scientists are even experimenting with virtual reality in the OR.

An orthopedic surgeon in Alabama, for instance, recently did a shoulder replacement with the help of a surgeon in Atlanta using Google Glass and a technology called VIPAAR.

"It's not unlike the line marking a first down" on a televised football game, Dr. Brent Ponce says. "Using VIPAAR, a remote surgeon is able to put his or her hands into the surgical field and provide collaboration and assistance."

And while surgeons may be doing less cutting to treat patients, they won't be out of a job altogether. Pellegrini says preventive surgeries especially, such as the ones we've seen for breast and ovarian cancer, will increase dramatically as DNA testing becomes more common.

The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2014 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

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