A Mooresville bariatric surgeon is working to reduce the number of scars his patients receive during a weight-loss procedure known as laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy.
Dr. Ryan Heider removed 90 percent of a patient's stomach through a single incision at the top of her belly button during the procedure Monday at Lake Norman Regional Medical Center.
Only a small pool of surgeons across the country has performed the surgery. The 90-minute procedure is the first single-incision weight-loss surgery of its kind performed at the hospital.
Once the incision was closed Monday, the cut wasn't visible.
"It was bigger than that in the operating room," Heider said. "The incision stretches and the stomach is slippery."
Ordinary laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy requires five to seven small incisions in various areas on the patient's upper stomach below the rib cage, Heider said.
Heider has performed weight-loss procedures such as the sleeve gastrectomy and lap-band system since 2007. He started studying single-incision procedures in November 2008.
In addition to weight-loss procedures, Heider has successfully removed gallbladders, colons and appendixes using the single-incision technique.
"What it shows is that Lake Norman Regional Medical Center patients can get cutting-edge, advanced health care close to home," Heider said. "Really, you can get procedures that are current or just as current as the university medical centers or the larger hospitals."
The single-incision technique is new in terms of weight-loss procedures, and a lot of people haven't heard about it, Heider said.
His patient, for example, was prepared to have a large or multiple incisions.
Heider said his patient was doing fine when she left the hospital. While no long-term studies exist at this point to present the possible complications of the procedure, Heider said everything appears to be normal.
"For a single incision, it's pretty amazing to me," LNRMC spokeswoman Leigh Whitfield said.
In addition to performing single-incision surgeries, Heider, a proctor for Johnson and Johnson subsidiary Ethicon Endo-Surgery, teaches other surgeons the technique.
The surgeons come to Lake Norman Regional Medical Center to take courses on the different procedures.
"It's not something you can pick up and do," Heider said. "It is sort of recommended that you undergo training."
He studied the single-incision laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy that other surgeons performed and received some helpful tips from another proctor during a lecture in Phoenix.
Heider said he performs single-incision procedures like this one because it is minimally invasive and less painful for the patients.
His patient on Monday told him she wasn't in pain. She said she didn't need medication afterward, Heider said.
"I think there is a move in health care to do something more patient focused," he said. "This is a little more challenging. There appears to be less pain, quicker recovery and high patient satisfaction. Afterwards, when they look down, they are ecstatic. They love it."
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