Gastroparesis Doctor In Clearwater, FL

Gastroparesis is delayed gastric emptying: the stomach empties too slowly because its muscle contractions are weak or poorly coordinated. It causes nausea, vomiting of undigested food eaten hours earlier, bloating, early fullness, weight loss, and often severe acid reflux. It is frequently idiopathic (no identified cause), sometimes tied to diabetes, and sometimes follows surgery or certain medications.

Gastroparesis rarely travels alone. It overlaps with GERD, with a hiatal hernia, and with esophageal motility disorders, and its symptoms are easy to confuse with those conditions. Dr. Grandhige focuses only on the foregut, meaning the esophagus, diaphragm, and stomach, so he evaluates these systems together instead of treating one and missing another. That matters when the same patient has both slow stomach emptying and a mechanical reflux problem, because treating only one leaves symptoms behind.

G-POEM (gastric per-oral endoscopic myotomy, also called POP or per-oral pyloromyotomy) is an incisionless procedure that helps the stomach empty by dividing the pyloric muscle, the valve between the stomach and the small intestine. When that valve stays tight, food backs up. G-POEM releases it.

The procedure is done through the mouth under general anesthesia, with no abdominal incisions. Using a flexible endoscope, Dr. Grandhige creates a small tunnel in the stomach lining and divides the pyloric muscle with an endoscopic knife. Because there are no external cuts, most patients go home the same day or after a short overnight stay, and recovery is quicker than open surgery. Dr. Grandhige is one of a handful of physicians in the Tampa Bay area who performs G-POEM.

G-POEM works best for patients with delayed emptying documented on testing, symptoms that line up with that delay, and no severe anatomic complication. It’s not for everyone. Functional nausea, an eating disorder, or medication side effects can produce the same symptoms without true gastroparesis, and G-POEM won’t help those patients. Dr. Grandhige will tell you directly when a procedure is unlikely to work, and will point you toward the right care instead. G-POEM improves symptoms in well-selected patients. It doesn’t cure gastroparesis, and it is one option among several. You can see the full set of treatments, from diet and medication through surgical options, on the practice’s gastroparesis page.

Gopal Grandhige, MD is a board-certified general surgeon and the founder and medical director of the Tampa Bay Reflux Institute. He has practiced foregut surgery in the Tampa Bay area since 2009. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS), a member of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), and a founding member of the American Foregut Society.

He completed his undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins University, earned his medical degree at the University of Michigan, and finished his general surgery residency and a fellowship in foregut and minimally invasive surgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Within his reflux practice he has performed more than 600 fundoplications, more than 600 LINX procedures, and more than 200 TIF procedures, alongside his gastroparesis and other foregut work. You can read more about Dr. Grandhige’s background and training, and you can confirm his license and standing through the Florida Department of Health license verification portal.