Ponsky and Gauderer invent the PEG tube

Flexible fiber-optic endoscopy as currently known began around 1958 when Hersowitz at the University of Michigan developed a method using glass fibers to transmit images.

In the 1960s, flexible endoscopy was used only for visualization of the GI tract without therapeutic interventions.

In the early 1970s, Shina, a surgeon in New York, developed the ability to remove polyps from the GI tract endoscopically.

Endoscopic polypectomy was significant because it enabled removal of polyps before they became cancer.

The speaker trained in endoscopy in Canton, Ohio with Jim Canyon, performing approximately 500 cases over nearly 5 months.

The speaker and pediatric surgeon Michael Gauderer developed a technique to place feeding tubes endoscopically through the abdominal wall for children with brain damage requiring long-term feeding.

The PEG tube procedure was probably the beginning of minimally invasive surgery.

The PEG tube was developed in 1979, almost 40 years before this presentation.

Major medical device companies including Olympus, Ross Laboratories, and Eaton Laboratory initially declined to commercialize the PEG tube.

The PEG tube was commercialized through American Endoscopy, a small company owned by Marlon Yonker.

American Endoscopy was sold to Bard Endoscopy in 1986.

The PEG tube is now used and overused throughout the world.

The PEG was the first minimally invasive surgical procedure.

Current endoscopic procedures include dividing muscles for achalasia, a condition where people cannot swallow.

Endoscopic treatment is now available for Zenker's diverticulum, an outpouching of the esophagus causing swallowing difficulty.

Surgery is now performed through the endoscope.