Porter Regional Hospital Talks GERD at ‘Heal the Burn’ Presentation

Porter Regional Hospital Talks GERD at ‘Heal the Burn’ Presentation

On Thursday, Porter Regional Hospital held a free presentation to educate the community on the latest treatment options for for gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD. General Surgeon Dr. Adam Conn and Gastroenterologist Dr. Rajeev Tummuru together presented ‘Heal the Burn - A Long-Term Solution to GERD’ to a packed room at the hospital's community room.

“We’re talking about the medical management for heartburn, or reflux, and and how successful these procedures are,” said Dr. Adam Conn, who has been with Porter’s Associates in Surgery for six years. “We’ve got a newer procedure that offers a long-term solution for GERD and we don’t have to make any incisions."

It’s been approximated that 25 million adult Americans suffer from heartburn - the most common symptom of acid reflux, or GERD - on a daily basis, according to the American College of Gastroenterology.

“There’s a huge amount of the population that has acid reflux,” Dr. Conn said. “As people get older or heavier, the incidents goes up significantly. Our group does a lot to take care of what the community needs. This is one of those areas.”

This was Dr. Conn’s first time giving the presentation with Dr. Rajeev Tummuru from Digestive Healthcare Associates, which gave those attending a glimpse of what’s new from both a surgery side and a gastroenterologist’s perspective.

“As a gastroenterologist I’m going to focus more on the medical management, get a little more into the physiology of it, and how we diagnose and manage complications,” said Dr. Rajeev Tummuru.

“We’ve had fantastic medications for a couple decades now that have more or less alleviated the need for mandatory surgeries in the past from bleeding complications and more life-threatening complications,” said Dr. Tummuru.

“With the advent of smaller microprocessors and wireless technology we can do wireless monitoring,” Dr. Tummuru said. “It used to be someone had to have a catheter down their nose and they would have to walk around like that. Now, we have a tiny probe we can clip to the inside of the esophagus and we can do everything wirelessly for four days. This kind of technology is also much easier on the patient as well.”

For more information on programs and classes from Porter Regional Hospital, click here.