– Belly-button access reduces number of skin incisions and improves patient outcomes –

Dr. Alexander Rosemurgy, left, and Dr. Michael Albrink

Tampa, FL (Oct. 15, 2007) — Tampa General Hospital and Covidien, a leading global provider of healthcare products, announced the completion of the first reported Single Incision Laparoscopic Nissen Fundoplication procedure, eliminating any visible scar in the patient’s abdominal wall.

This procedure, for treatment of esophageal reflux disease (known as “GERD” or gastric reflux), was performed at Tampa General by Alexander Rosemurgy, MD, professor of surgery at USF Health. Also at Tampa General, Michael Albrink, MD, associate professor of surgery at USF Health, completed two single incision laparoscopic cholecystectomies -– gallbladder removal procedures. Dr. Rosemurgy and Dr. Albrink are among the first surgeons in the country to have performed the single incision procedure for these two types of laparoscopic surgeries.

Dr. Rosemurgy and Dr. Albrink safely performed the procedures through a single skin incision in the patients’ navels. Customized solutions are also forthcoming to enable similar single incision laparoscopic procedures for other general surgery, urologic, gynecologic, and bariatric surgery applications.

Laparoscopic surgery typically results in less pain, quicker healing and improved cosmetic results, and fewer complications such as infection. Most patients can be discharged on the same or following day as the surgery and return to work within about a week.

Single incision laparoscopy, like the advent of multi-port laparoscopy back in the late 1980’s, represents one of the next major advances in minimally invasive surgery.

– USF Health –

USF Health is dedicated to creating a model of health care based on understanding the full spectrum of health. It includes the University of South Florida’s colleges of medicine, nursing, and public health; the schools of biomedical sciences as well as physical therapy & rehabilitation sciences; and the USF Physicians Group. With $308 million in research funding last year, USF is one of the nation’s top 63 public research universities and one of Florida’s top three research universities.