PROGRAMS | minimally invasive surgery

CIMIT supports NOTES initiative with $2.1M grant

Team will focus on minimally invasive surgery that leaves no scars, minimizes infection

At the February 5 CIMIT Forum to celebrate the launch of its 10th Anniversary year, Executive Director John Parrish, MD, announced the winning project for CIMIT’s $2.1 million Strategic Project. The award will go to a team pioneering a dynamic new technology promising the future possibility of surgical procedures without making incisions on the surface of the body.

The multi-institutional initiative chosen was NOTES (Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery). The award of $700,000 annually for three years represents CIMIT’s largest grant program. With this award, CIMIT’s investment in NOTES research will top $3 million overall, making CIMIT the largest financial sponsor of this technology worldwide.

Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) was a dramatic improvement in surgical practice that began in the 1980’s. It decreases risk for patients, achieves quicker recovery times, and shortens hospital stays. A great example of MIS is laparoscopic surgery, where a small five-to-ten millimeter cut is made instead of a large incision. Since patients aren't opened up as they are in traditional surgeries, surgeons needed another way to see inside the body.

New tools provided that visual access, like long telescopes, laparoscopes outfitted with CCD cameras and flexible fiber optics inserted through the tiny incisions. Through those same small openings, increasingly sophisticated tools are used to perform the procedure.

CIMIT’s Minimally Invasive Surgery Program is currently focused on working toward the next generation of less invasive surgical therapy. This recently-developed approach, Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES), may ultimately lead to incision-less surgery.

What advantage does NOTES offer compared with other minimally invasive surgical techniques? Because the surgeons will gain access to the surgical field through a natural orifice—using newly developed devices—no external incision is needed. The hypothesis is that by avoiding incisions in the abdominal wall, risks of infection, pain and disability will be minimized and recovery either shortened or eliminated. Many procedures could be so radically improved that patients might even be able to return to a normal routine immediately.

CIMIT's expertise in convening at the national level, funding of high-risk ventures, information sharing across disciplines, and medical device development has made minimally invasive surgery an expanding reality for clinicians and patients.

Clinical Problem: Make surgery safer, and recovery faster and less painful for patients.

CIMIT Solutions:

Novel surgical procedures performed through the mouth and other natural orifices, making surgery virtually incision-less and painless for patients.
The Operating Room of the Future, a state-of-the-art surgical space developed at MGH in which advanced technologies are used to increase efficiency and safety for staff and patients.