Gastroparesis Surgery In St. Petersburg, FL

G-POEM is an incisionless procedure done entirely through the mouth. Using a flexible endoscope, the surgeon creates a small tunnel in the stomach lining near the pylorus, then divides the pyloric muscle with an endoscopic knife so the valve opens more easily. It’s also called POP (per-oral pyloromyotomy); the two names describe minor technical variations of the same operation. Because there are no abdominal incisions, there’s no abdominal-wall pain, and many patients go home within a day or two. Diet is advanced gradually over the following weeks while the area heals.

Dr. Grandhige is one of a small number of surgeons performing this endoscopic procedure in the Tampa Bay area, which is a large part of why patients cross the bay from Pinellas County for it.

Surgery is on the table only after objective testing confirms the diagnosis and points to the pylorus as the problem. Symptoms alone can’t diagnose gastroparesis, because several conditions mimic it. Dr. Grandhige relies on a gastric emptying study (the standard test, which tracks how fast a light, labeled meal leaves the stomach over four hours) and upper endoscopy, and he uses advanced tools such as EndoFLIP in his foregut practice to measure how a valve opens. If testing shows the slow emptying comes from diffuse stomach-muscle failure rather than the pylorus, an operation on the pylorus is unlikely to help, and he’ll say so.

Good candidates generally have refractory gastroparesis (symptoms that persist despite medication and diet), delayed emptying confirmed on testing, and nausea or vomiting as the dominant complaint. Poorer candidates include people whose symptoms are mainly pain, whose testing doesn’t confirm delayed emptying, or whose slow emptying isn’t pylorus-driven. Severe malnutrition changes the plan too, because nutrition often has to be stabilized before any definitive procedure is safe.

This is where the approach differs from a general surgeon who treats gastroparesis occasionally. Dr. Grandhige operates on fewer patients on purpose, because patients chosen carefully are far more likely to improve. Many people arrive expecting surgery and leave instead with a clear diagnosis, an explanation that finally makes sense, and a non-surgical plan.

The office sits at 1315 South Howard Avenue, Suite 101, in Tampa’s Hyde Park (SoHo) district, about 25 to 35 minutes from central St. Petersburg depending on traffic and whether you cross on the Gandy or the Howard Frankland bridge. All procedures are performed at HCA South Tampa Hospital, a single facility Dr. Grandhige uses on purpose so the same anesthesia team, nurses, and surgical staff assist every case. He previously operated at Bayfront in St. Petersburg and at several other area hospitals; consolidating to one site is a deliberate choice for consistency and safety.

St. Petersburg and wider Pinellas County residents make up a regular share of the practice, and out-of-town logistics are routine here. When testing can be done closer to home, the office arranges that first so your trip across the bay is efficient. Gastroparesis often overlaps with severe acid reflux and other foregut conditions, and if you’re dealing with more than one problem, related issues like GERD or silent reflux can be evaluated in the same workup. Plain-language articles on these topics are on the practice blog.