Refinements in laparoscopic surgery, coupled with advancements in therapeutic flexible endoscopy, have set the stage for surgery to move to even less invasive techniques to treat conditions in the GI tract and peritoneal cavity. Natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) offers a means of reducing and ultimately eliminating the need for abdominal incisions to gain access to the peritoneal cavity. In NOTES, a flexible endoscope and accessory instruments are inserted through a natural body orifice and passed through the wall of an organ to reach the abdominal cavity. By reducing or eliminating the need for abdominal incisions, NOTES may provide a least invasive surgical option that can reduce pain, recovery time, complications, and systemic inflammatory response when compared to a laparoscopic surgical approach. In this study, we propose to use the NOTES technique to eliminate the need for a 1.5-2.5 cm umbilical incision. Hypothesis 1: We hypothesize that a combined endoscopic and laparoscopic approach will be able to eliminate a 1.5 to 2.5 cm infraumbilical incision when performing a laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Hypothesis 2: Closure of the gastrotomy will be facilitated with the Ethicon TAS system.