Dr. Yoav Mintz of the Hadassah Medical Center’s general surgery department is one of two surgeons to perform the first Transvaginal Cholecystectomy in Argentina, marking the sixth time this procedure has been successfully done in the world to remove a gallbladder.

In traditional minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery, instead of opening the abdomen, surgeons insert specially built surgical tools and an endoscope through four small incisions. This new type of surgery, which Dr. Mintz helped to develop, involves only one incision in the abdomen for the endoscope. The surgical tools are inserted through the vagina. Dr. Mintz had the opportunity to perform the surgery in Argentina as part of a University of Southern California fellowship program.