Surgical Endoscopy Series Ep. 3: Per Oral Endoscopic Myotomy

Behind The Knife: The Surgery Podcast

Science, Health & Fitness, Medicine, Education

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, the Surgical Endoscopy team reviews applications of per oral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) at different locations in the gastrointestinal tract. Specifically, they discuss esophageal POEM for achalasia, G-POEM for gastroparesis, and Z-POEM for management of a Zenker’s diverticulum. The team describes outcomes for these procedures as well as an overview of the procedural steps and postoperative management. Common pitfalls to POEM are deliberated along with advice on how to mitigate challenging situations when they arise.

VIDEO LINK: https://app.behindtheknife.org/video/surgical-endoscopy-series-ep-3-per-oral-endoscopic-myotomy

Hosts:
• Dr. Sullivan “Sully” Ayuso, Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellow, Endeavor Health (Evanston, IL), @SAyusoMD (Twitter)
• Dr. H. Mason Hedberg, Minimally Invasive Surgeon, Endeavor Health (Evanston, IL)
• Dr. Trevor Crafts, Minimally Invasive Surgeon, Rocky Mountain VA Medical Center (Denver, CO), @CraftsTrevor (Twitter)
• Dr. Michael McCormack, Minimally Invasive Surgeon, Swedish Hospital (Chicago, IL)
Learning Objectives:
• Describe the basic steps of the Peroral Endoscopic Myotomy (POEM) technique.
• Identify the different applications for POEM in the esophagus, stomach, and pharynx.
• Recognize the primary indications and success rates for esophageal, gastric, and Zenker's diverticulum POEM procedures.

Surgical Endocsopy Series:
- Surgical Endoscopy Series Ep. 1: An Introduction to Surgical Endoscopy: https://behindtheknife.org/podcast/surgical-endoscopy-series-ep-1-an-introduction-to-surgical-endoscopy
- Surgical Endoscopy Series Ep. 2: Endobariatrics - https://behindtheknife.org/podcast/surgical-endoscopy-series-ep-2-endobariatrics

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Behind the Knife, The Surgery to thank Boston Scientific for sponsoring this series.
0:27.9	Boston Scientific's Educare platform provides online access to a wealth of educational
0:34.0	and training content all in one convenient place.
0:40.3	Boston Scientific is committed to making medical education and training more relevant, more comprehensive, and more accessible
0:46.3	for healthcare professionals like you, helping you deliver the best patient care possible.
0:52.3	Visit educare.b boston scientific.com.
0:57.1	That's edu-C-A-R-E dot Boston Scientific.com to start your learning journey today.
1:05.4	Welcome back and thanks for tuning into our third episode in the surgical endoscopy series.
1:10.3	In this episode, our focus
1:11.8	will be on the various uses of per-oral endoscopic myotomy or poem technique and the gastrointestinal
1:18.2	track. For a brief reintroduction of our team, I am Sully Uso on the current Minimally Invasive
1:23.9	Surgery Fellow at Endeavor Health, formerly North Shore. Once again, we were lucky enough to be joined by assistant professor and four-gued
1:31.6	surgeon, Dr. Mason Headberg from Endeavor.
1:34.4	Dr. Trevor Crafts again joins us from the Rocky Mountain VA in Denver, where he is also
1:39.6	assistant professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
1:44.1	And this time, we're also lucky enough to be joined by Dr. Michael McCormick from Swedish
1:48.4	Hospital here in Chicago.
1:50.0	Dr. McCormick previously participated as the first fellow at Endeavor Health.
1:54.9	So we're lucky to have him today.
1:56.9	But Dr. Headberg, let's start with you and kind of dive in.
2:00.3	Do you mind providing us with
2:01.7	a brief introduction and background about esophageal poem, how it came to be, and then talk a little
	...

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