Removing Gallbladders Through Belly Buttons

ORLANDO, Fla. ((American Health Newswire) -- Some of us have innies, others have outies, but besides collecting lint, what's your belly button really good for?Now, your navel is changing a surgery more than half-a-million people undergo each year.

Jannett Matthews loves doing some exercises.

"It's hard but just to know I can do it is exciting," Janett told American Health.

She hates others, but she does it all.

"I was at 280 pounds and decided that wasn't going to work for me," Jannett said.

With exercise and bariatric surgery she lost more than 100 pounds. After the rapid slim down her gallbladder wasn't working right.

"There were days when the pain was so bad, I just didn't have the strength to train," Jannett said.

Removal was her best option. She already had several abdominal scars from her weight loss surgery and wasn't looking forward to more. Then doctor keith kim told her with a robot, and just one cut he could do the surgery through her belly button.

He sits feet away from the patient and uses a robot to control the instruments. The doctor says the single incision laporoscopic procedure approved by the FDA less than a year ago, offers surgeons better ergonomics, visualization and precision.

"It minimizes the number of incisions but it also tries to hide that incision so there's very little residual scar left over after surgery," Keith Kim, M.D., a general and bariatric surgeon at Florida Hospital Celebration Health, explained.

He says because the incision is only an inch and hidden by the belly button, the biggest benefit is cosmetic, but doctors also believe the single incision surgery helps reduce recovery time and post-operative pain. Jannett says after her surgery she was back home within hours and back in the gym in three weeks.

Asthma Attack: The "Heat" is On

CLEVELAND, OH ( American Health Newswire) -- Trouble breathing, coughing, stuffiness and more. 60 million people suffer from allergies and asthma. There's no cure, but now doctors have a new weapon to help these people attack the annoying symptoms.

Karen Ecker lived the last five years a prisoner inside her own home.

"I couldn't have the windows open at all. My daughter would be playing outside and I'd get to watch her," Karen ecker, who suffers from severe asthma, told American Health.

One day she was fine and the next she wasn't.

"All the sudden I couldn't breathe," Karen said.

Suffering severe asthma, simply leaving her house was dangerous.

"My lips would turn blue and I would just cough uncontrollably," Karen said.

Anti-allergy medication, even steroids did nothing to help. Then the FDA approved bronchial thermoplasty. It uses radio-frequency energy to heat up problem areas.

"It seems to reduce the thickness of the smooth muscle, which may reduce the spasming," Sumita B. Khatri, M.D., MS, co-director of the asthma center at the Cleveland Clinic Respiratory Institute, said.

A catheter goes through the nose or mouth, into the lungs and delivers thermal energy to the airways.

"And this basket has 4 metal struts on it, which is used to apply heat to the airways of the lung," Dr. Khatri said.

It's not a cure, but it's given Karen a chance to start crossing things off her bucket list.

"The first one on the list was a picnic with Steph outside," Karen said.

Also checked off, a trip to the zoo, fireworks, a family vacation, going out to dinner and her celebration thermoplasty garden!

"It's just a symbol of freedom just to be outside," Karen said. "At first I would stand at the window and look at it and dream of the day I would be standing out here."

Enjoying what most of us take for granted for the first time in years. Lifestyle changes, steroid inhalers and nasal sprays are a first line of asthma defense. Bronchialtherapy is only used for severe asthma sufferers and has been shown to improve the quality of life by reducing asthma symptoms, lessen the severity of flare-ups and reduce the number of emergency room visits.

Attacking a Monster Clot!

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (American Health Newswire) -- A blood clot as long as a toddler! That's what one man had inside his body. His doctor says a device that's revolutionizing the way he attacks clots may have saved the patient's life.

Two and a half feet! That's how big the blood clot was in Gerry Cunha's body.

"I just couldn't imagine two and a half feet of clotting," Gerry Cunha, told American Health.

It was deep vein thrombosis or DVT.

"It's a clot that forms in the deep veins of the leg," Warren Swee, M.D, MPH, a vascular and interventional radiologist at South Florida Vascular Associates, in Coconut Creek, Fla., explained.

The clot went from below his knee to his lower abdomen. The traveling salesman was in trouble.

"I could hardly walk," Gerry said. "I was in such horrible pain."

There was a serious chance of pulmonary embolism. The clot could break off, enter his lungs and kill him. In a letter he told his wife goodbye, but she didn't have to read it thanks to the EKOS system. It goes into the blockage and delivers clot-busting medication like other catheter devices, but the EKOS addsultrasound. Doctor Warren Swee says the vibration better penetrates the clot, making it easier to dissolve.

"It cuts down the time and the amount of clot busting medication we need," Dr. Swee said.

He tells us it requires half the time and half the medication of similar procedures, making it safer for patients like Gerry who can't handle high doses of clot-busting drugs.

"Patients that may not have been a candidate before may be a candidate now," Dr. Swee said.

Today Gerry's leg is back to normal and he's back on the road.

"I can drive about 300 to 400 miles a week," Gerry said.

Because of the size of Gerry's clot, it took doctor Swee two days to completely dissolve it.

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