Report of Transluminal Cholecystectomy in a Human Being

ABSTRACT

Hypothesis  Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) provides the potential for performance of incisionless operations. This would break the physical barrier between bodily trauma and surgery, representing an epical revolution in surgery. Our group at IRCAD-EITS (Institut de Recherche contre les Cancers de l’Appareil Digestif [Institute of Digestive Cancer Research]–European Institute of TeleSurgery) has been actively involved in the development of NOTES since 2004 with a dedicated project created to develop feasibility and survival studies and new endoscopic technology.

Design  NOTES cholecystectomy in a woman via a transvaginal approach.

Setting  University hospital.

Patient  The patient was a 30-year-old woman with symptomatic cholelithiasis.

Intervention  The procedure was carried out by a multidisciplinary team using a standard double-channel flexible videogastroscope and standard endoscopic instruments. The placement of a 2-mm needle port, mandatory to insufflate carbon dioxide and to monitor the pneumoperitoneum, was helpful for further retraction of the gallbladder. At no stage of the procedure was there need for laparoscopic assistance. All of the principles of cholecystectomy were strictly adhered to.

Results  The postoperative course was uneventful. The patient had no postoperative pain and no scars, and was discharged on the second postoperative day.

Conclusions  Transluminal surgery is feasible and safe. NOTES, a radical shift in the practice and philosophy of interventional treatment, is becoming established and is enormously advantageous to the patient. With its invisible mending and tremendous potential, NOTES might be the next surgical evolution.

The abolishment of pain in surgery is a chimera. It is absurd to go on seeking it. . . . Knife and pain are two words in surgery that must forever be associated in the consciousness of the patient.—Dr Alfred Velpeau, French surgeon (1839)

Change is part of surgery but it is never easy to accept. At the dawn of surgery, excellence was associated with big incisions: “Big scar, big surgeon.” Surgery with no scars was an impossible reverie. Now natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) is being performed, and the philosophy of surgery will be dramatically changed. Transluminal surgery has the potential to break the physical barrier between bodily trauma and surgery, representing an epical evolution in surgery.

Laparoscopic gallbladder resection changed the focus of surgery and the mindset of nearly all surgeons. Cholecystectomy seems to be the logical next step in developing the clinical application of NOTES.

In 1882, Langenbuch, as cited by van Gulik,¹ successfully removed the gallbladder in a 43-year-old man who had cholelithiasis. His initial report was ignored. Nevertheless, Langenbuch’s open cholecystectomy remained the standard criterion for the treatment of symptomatic cholelithiasis for more than a century. In 1985, Muhe, as cited by Reynolds,² performed the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy using a modified laparoscope, called the galloscope. In 1986, he presented his technique at the German Surgical Society Congress but was strongly criticized. In 1987, Mouret³performed the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy with an approach that would become the standard technique within 2 years, that is, use of 1 optical trocar and 2 other trocars. The world of general surgery was soon divided into a small group of enthusiastic surgeons convinced of the superiority of laparoscopic over conventional cholecystectomy and a second, large group of surgeons with varying opinions ranging from curiosity to frank condemnation of laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

The controversy was intense but short. In 1992, the National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference⁴ statement on gallstones and laparoscopic cholecystectomy concluded that, compared with open cholecystectomy, laparoscopic cholecystectomy was safe and effective in most patients and should be the treatment of choice. Even if surgeons were reluctant to acknowledge this shift in treatment, patients applauded the new minimally invasive surgery. Whenever it was possible, patients would ask for a surgical procedure that left no outer scarring and resulted in no postoperative pain. Patients, both male and female, independent of age and body shape, dislike scars, not only for cosmetic reasons but because scars indicate they have undergone treatment because of illness. This resulted in NOTES, with its general goal of minimizing the trauma of any interventional process by eliminating the incision through the abdominal wall and using natural orifices. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the use of NOTES to treat cholecystectomy in a human being via transvaginal access, performed at University Hospital in Strasbourg, France.

CONCLUSION

With the successful performance of the first transluminal cholecystectomy, we witnessed the introduction of NOTES into clinical practice with mixed feelings of excitement and caution. Even if the advantages of NOTES in this first clinical case are apparent, transvaginal cholecystectomy is time consuming and difficult. Will NOTES generate a major paradigm shift in surgical care? We know that laparoscopic surgery is just the beginning of the minimally invasive evolution of surgery. We have come to an even more critical juncture in the history of surgery. With its invisible mending and tremendous potential for improving patient care and well-being, NOTES might represent the next greatest surgical evolution.

Source:JAMA