World first by Cleveland Clinic using ASC's r-Port(TM),

Dateline: 28 November 2007

Cleveland Clinic urologists recently performed a series of ground-breaking single-port surgeries: laparoscopic nephrectomy (entire kidney removal), bilateral pyeloplasty (uretero-pelvic junction repair), ileal ureter replacement, and psoas hitch uretero-neocystostomy (for ureteral obstruction).

Urologic surgeon Mihir Desai, MD, head of endourology, performed these surgeries, each a world first, trans-umbilically by inserting all necessary instruments through a single access port inserted into the patients' bellybuttons. No extra-umbilical skin incisions were created.

The procedures were enabled by the r-Port(TM), a novel surgical access device developed by Advanced Surgical Concepts Ltd. of Ireland.

Dr. Desai's accomplishments, accepted for publication on October 26th, 2007 by the British Journal of Urology International and available on-line next week, are the first peer-reviewed publication of single-port laparoscopy in the field of urology.

"Trans-umbilical single-port, scar-free surgery is the next major advance in laparoscopic surgery," said Dr. Desai. "During traditional laparoscopy, 3-6 small abdominal incisions are made to insert a camera and instruments to perform surgical procedures. Our novel single-port approach, when performed trans-umbilically, leaves no visible skin scar, since the belly-button hides the incision site. Post-operative pain appears to be reduced, compared to traditional open or laparoscopic surgery," he said. Dr. Desai added that "all surgical steps in these complex reconstructive procedures were replicated in the single port approach without any short-cuts."

Cleveland Clinic urologists have taken the lead in developing single-port techniques. They are the first US institution to use the r-Port(TM) from Advanced Surgical Concepts, Ltd. The r-Port(TM) enables surgeons to pass all instruments and cameras through a single, easy-to-use access port. The r-Port(TM) can potentially make single-port, scar-less surgery a practical alternative to many standard, multi-port laparoscopic procedures.

"Our team is at the forefront of scar-free surgery," said Inderbir Gill, MD, vice chairman of urology, who performed the first single-port donor and partial nephrectomy surgeries. "We are carefully developing single-port techniques for many advanced urologic applications." Other members of the team included Drs. Robert Stein, Amr Fergany, Monish Aron, Georges Pascal Haber and David Canes.

   
    Press Contact:
    Frank Leonard
    Advanced Surgical Concepts Ltd.
    +1-212-767-7504