Americans have learned to remove the appendix through the mouth.

American doctors are setting new records: a patient with appendicitis underwent surgery through the mouth. Surgeons are increasingly choosing to remove organs through natural openings in the body, which leaves no scars on the body and allows for a faster recovery. 42-year-old former Marine Jeff Scholz became the first patient in the United States to have his appendix removed through the mouth. Surgeons at the University of California Hospital performed a truly revolutionary procedure with a minimum of external incisions. Doctors passed elastic surgical instruments through Scholz’s mouth, accompanied by a tiny video camera, which was used to monitor their “passage.” Another camera was inserted through a tiny incision in the navel. After the inflamed appendix was cut out, it was removed again through the mouth along with all the instruments. The operation was performed under general anesthesia, and the patient experienced minimal postoperative pain. Scholz's story has already been covered in sufficient detail in the media, as has an operation to remove the appendix through the mouth, which was performed earlier this year by Swedish surgeons. Today it is becoming clear that such surgical methods have the potential to change the operating room much more than minimally invasive laparoscopy did 20 years ago. Transluminal surgery, which allows for surgical interventions to be performed through natural openings in the human body, was born 4 years ago. The first operations were performed in India and South America, and over the past two years, surgeons have already performed 60 such manipulations. On a global scale, this is still a drop in the ocean, but transluminal surgery is already being called "a new age of medicine." "I was skeptical about this kind of manipulation two years ago," says Dr. David Rattner, head of the surgery department at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. "Now my views have changed—this thing really works." Transluminal surgery could potentially become a major new market. Manufacturers of medical devices are spending millions on developing new surgical instruments, and research shows that patients "don't hiccup when damaged organs are removed through their mouths." After all, with this type of surgery, healing is much faster. No healing wounds, no horrible, disfiguring scars. Isn't that a reason to write a larger check than usual? Source: dp.ru