The procedure, which took less than an hour, requires inserting an endoscope through the mouth of the 70-year old patient while under local sedation.

“The patient was diagnosed with first stage stomach cancer and the decision was made to perform endoscopic surgery as we were concerned about our elderly patient undergoing traditional surgery. The patient previously had a stroke and had other diseases unrelated to the stomach cancer,” said Dr Emad Al Rahmani, chairman of Medicine Department and head of Endoscopy Unit at Mafraq Hospital.

“The cancer was removed using a new technique called endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) which breaks the tumour in one piece using a scope through the patient’s mouth without any incision,” he explained.

The ESD is a procedure that first separates the tumour from underlying tissue by injecting a fluid. This is followed by cutting the tumour using a special endoscopic tool. The procedure is fairly new and only few centres in the US are known to perform it.

“This is the first time such a surgery has been performed in the Middle East. Our patient is stable and is expected to make a swift recovery,” said Dr Al Rahmani. 

olivia@khaleejtimes.com