The Digestive Health Center offers advanced laparoscopic and thoracoscopic surgery techniques for the treatment of digestive disorders. Our minimally invasive surgery program treats patients with benign and malignant conditions of their gastrointestinal tract.

Laparoscopy is also used to fully evaluate the abdomen before planned surgery for gastric, liver and pancreatic malignancies. Using laparoscopy in this way enables us to limit fully invasive surgery to those patients who will benefit most from it.

Benign conditions

Benign upper gastrointestinal conditions treated laparoscopically include:

• Gastroesophageal reflux
• Paraesophageal hernias
• Achalasia
• Esophageal diverticula
• Gastric bypass for obesity
• Gastric and duodenal ulcers
• Gallbladder disease and associated common duct stones
• Pancreatic pseudocysts
• Islet cell tumors

Benign lower gastrointestinal conditions treated laparoscopically include:

• Appendicitis
• Diverticulitis
• Inflammatory bowel disease

In addition, surgical removal of the spleen and adrenal gland is routinely performed laparoscopically.

Malignant conditions

Malignancies treated laparoscopically include:

• Esophageal cancer
• Colon cancer
• Achalasia

Radio-frequency ablation of liver metastases or primary liver cancers may also be approached through a laparoscope.