Marc Barthet MD, PhD

Professor Marc Barthet is a specialist in Gastroenterology and Stomach cancer at the AP-HM Marseille Hospital. In January 2014, he led the team of Gastroenterology service that reconstitutes the esophagus of a patient without opening the chest or the abdominal, it is a world premiere successfully completed in Marseille. 

This operation concerned a Strasbourg patient suffering from obesity and a loss of oesophageal substance due to bariatric surgery. The surgery lasted two hours and thirty minutes without complications and she left the hospital eight days after her intervention. The second operation was heavier than the first one and required the reconstruction of the entire height of the esophagus, with a double digestive endoscopic approach and Otorhinolaryngology surgery that lasted two hours and thirty minutes, too. It took several years of research to develop this less invasive surgical technique, which reduces the traumatism, and consequences and also reduces postoperative complications. 

Generally, the digestive endoscopy treatment is prowess in more ways than one. Its realization at the level of the chest is complex due to the major risk of infection, the diffusion of air in the mediastinum and Pleural cavity, and the proximity of cardiac structures and great vessels. It is a new achievement that confirms the French advance in transluminal endoscopic surgery by natural means. Professor Marc Barthet is now an international reference in the field of transluminal endoscopic surgery.