SUM hospital introduces latest poem technology to treat achalasia cardia

(Surjit Dhal Bhubaneswar, Feb 17): Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, the faculty of medicine of SOA Deemed to be University, has introduced the latest technology to successfully treat conditions like Achalasia Cardia, a serious complication of the esophagus.

            The hospital’s Gastroenterology department has so far successfully treated 16 patients having the disease using the Per Oral Endoscopy Myotomy (POEM) technology, pioneered in Japan, also known as the third space endoscopic tunnel surgery.

            Achalasia Cardia occurs when some important neurons are absent in the esophagus causing failure of the food pipe which cannot transport the food or liquid intake. The patient develops dysphagia, is unable to swallow and the food consumed come up during the night and enter the lungs causing serious complications.

            The option for treatment till now was Pneumatic dilatation which had significant risk of perforation while the other was Heller Myotomy in which the surgeon had to cut, enter and perform the surgery from outside the chest and abdomen.

            POEM is the extreme innovation in which a tunnel is created between mucosal and muscle layers through the mouth and surgery is performed very safely. The patient is required stay in hospital for a day after surgery and then discharged, Dr. Manoj Kumar Sahu, Head of the department of Gastroenterology, who led the team in conducting the procedures, said.

 Though the procedure costs Rs. five lakh in big cities, it was being done for only Rs. 10,000 in IMS and SUM Hospital which is also the only centre in eastern India where 16 persons had been successfully treated using this new technology. All of them were leading normal lives now, he said.

The same tunnel surgery can also be performed to deal with resistant Gastroparesis and Hirschsprung’s disease, Dr. Sahu said.