SARASOTA, Fla. — A unique medical technology made its debut in the Tampa Bay area and is now available to serve patients on the west coast of Florida.
Sarasota Doctors Hospital said its gastroenterologists can now perform a peroral endoscopic myotomy, also known as POEM.
The technology eliminates the need for invasive surgery for certain patients with throat issues and disorders.
"It's specifically a catheter that goes through a gastroscope, and an endoscope that has a camera and a light at the tip of it and in the middle of that has a tube that allows me to put in various instruments," said Dr. Abdelhai Abdelqader, gastroenterologist with Sarasota Doctors Hospital.
"One of them is an injection needle, another one is a catheter with an electrical electrosurgical knife that allows me to access the deeper layers of the esophagus," Abdelqader said.
POEM is considered a game-changing technique in the medical field and one Bradenton man recently had the procedure.
"I had a Zenker POEM procedure and it fixed a swallowing issue that I had," 73-year-old Jim Nichols said.
Nichols said he had suffered a throat problem for 12 years.
He had what's called a Zenker's diverticulum, which is when a pouch forms where the lower part of the throat meets the upper part of the esophagus, according to Penn Medicine's website.
The disorder, which often affects older adults, is also known as pharyngoesophageal diverticulum and it develops when the muscle between the throat and esophagus tightens and develops a pouch that traps food and liquid, Penn Medicine stated on their website.
"Particles would build up and it would also divert liquids into my wind tube which will create coughing spasms if you will," Nichols said.
Nichols said the problem was very bothersome in his everyday life.
"It was most discomforting when I was eating or going out to dinner," he said. "I would get food stuck and I would have to actually excuse myself to extricate the food that would be stuck."
He added that he had lost weight at the intensity of the problem.
Now at Sarasota Doctors Hospital, surgeons are able to help patients like Nichols with the latest technology to avoid more invasive surgeries and help solve their throat ailments.
"It's considered electrosurgery where a lot of the tissue gets cut without any actual knives using thermal energy," Abdelqader said.
The POEM technology has been around for about 15-20 years but hasn't been available in the Tampa Bay area until recently.
People in the Tampa Bay area were forced to take multiple trips to Orlando, Jacksonville or Gainesville for treatment.
"It's a lot more money and sometimes there is a two to four months waiting period for them to even be seen prior to the procedure being considered," Abdelqader said.
For Nichols, the procedure came at a crucial time and has been life-changing since he had it done.
"My quality of life is definitely 100% better than it once was and there is actually no swallowing issue when I eat anymore," he said.
Doctors say the technology takes 40 minutes to an hour and a half to complete the procedure.