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Managing Editor SPRINGFIELD When Eugene LaFlam awoke following his surgery to treat an infected pancreatic pseudocyst he asked if the surgeons treating his condition actually had performed an operation as he didn't have any of the pain or discomfort associated with conventional surgery. The Brattleboro, Vt., resident was the first person in the world to have a pancreatic pseudocyst successfully treated without any incision. The team of Baystate Medical Center physicians who treated LaFlam gathered at a press conference Thursday morning to discuss the new technique and its future in medicine. Using a computer powered surgical stapling system, Dr. John Romanelli of Westfield and Dr. David Desilets of Southwick were able to reach the pseudocyst through the patient's mouth. By making a hole in his stomach, the stapling system was able to drain the infected area during the June 26 operation. Six days after the procedure, a re-examination showed the pseudocyst was almost completely gone along with dead tissue and a clot. LaFlam had been too ill to risk conventional surgery. Traditional methods to clear the infection away completely had been unsuccessful. His wife Dianne had been told he would die without the new procedure. On a video show at the press conference, Eugene LaFlam said, "Boy, do I feel good! It's quite a difference." He is now off of intravenous feeding and was expected to enter rehabilitation the day of the press conference. Dr. Richard Wait, the chairman of the Department of Surgery at Baystate Medical Center, said the case was significant for another reason other than the innovative non-invasive surgery. The treatment was an example of a disease-oriented team approach in which doctors with specialized skills came together to complement one another. Wait said teaming physicians was a "model for the future." Romanelli said the technique of using an orifice as an entry point could include incision-less appendectomies and gall bladder surgery in the future, as well as colon surgery and weight loss procedures within three to five years. "There are two limitations: the instrumentation and the imagination," Romanelli said. Desilets said the goal was patient satisfaction and the new technique offers no post-operative pain and no scars. The flexibility of the tube holding the stapler made the operation possible, Dr. David Earle, Director of Minimally Invasive Surgery, explained. Romanelli couldn't comment on the price comparison to more traditional surgery other than to say because there isn't an incision there are not the accompanying costs that come with traditional surgery. Earle said he couldn't predict how insurance companies would view the new techniques. Romanelli said that health insurance companies often resist new procedures. Earle said the administration at the medical center supports such innovation. "If you never introduce new techniques, it's never going to happen," he said. | ||||||
