Surgeons have successfully removed a woman's gall bladder through her vagina, removing the need for outer incisions and the resulting scars.
The procedure is one of a number of potential operations under natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (Notes).
By using Notes, trauma is minimised for people who do not want to have outer scarring.
French surgeons made and a closed a small hole in the back of the 30-year-old woman's vagina.
Instruments were inserted through this opening and the gall bladder taken out.
Writing in the Archives of Surgery, the surgeons report that no bleeding or leakage of liver fluids occurred during the three-hour operation.
The patient was discharged two days after the surgery and during her follow-up visit doctors found her to have resumed full activity and to have no discharge or bleeding.
The researchers conclude that benefits of conducting Notes in patients must be supported by evidence but add: "It is exciting to contemplate the potential for Notes in improving patient care.
"A surgical intervention that eradicates the need for any incision, avoiding bodily trauma, is attractive to patients and also has an aura that surgeons find hard to resist."
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