Gastroparesis Specialists In Clearwater, FL

G-POEM, short for gastric per-oral endoscopic myotomy and sometimes called POP (per-oral pyloromyotomy), is an incisionless procedure that cuts the pyloric muscle so the stomach can empty more freely. The pylorus is the muscular valve between the stomach and the small intestine. In many gastroparesis patients it fails to relax properly, so the stomach stays backed up. During G-POEM, a flexible endoscope is passed through the mouth, a small tunnel is created in the stomach lining, and the pyloric muscle is divided with an endoscopic knife. There are no abdominal incisions. It is done under general anesthesia, and most patients go home the same day.

Dr. Grandhige is one of only a handful of surgeons in the Tampa Bay area who perform G-POEM. It is a genuine therapeutic procedure, not a minor one, which is exactly why it belongs to patients whose gastroparesis has been confirmed by testing and has not responded to diet changes and medication, rather than being offered to everyone with stomach symptoms. The full step-by-step mechanics live on the gastroparesis treatment page so this page does not repeat them.

G-POEM is one option on a ladder that starts conservative and escalates only as needed. Most patients begin with diet: smaller and more frequent meals, well-cooked and low-fat foods, and limiting carbonation and alcohol, often with a dietitian’s help to keep calories and nutrition adequate. Medication is the next step. Promotility drugs such as metoclopramide (Reglan) and erythromycin speed the stomach up, though metoclopramide carries side-effect limits on long-term use and erythromycin tends to lose effect over time; domperidone has fewer side effects but is harder to access. Anti-nausea medications like ondansetron, prochlorperazine, and diphenhydramine control the nausea and vomiting rather than the emptying itself.

When symptoms persist despite diet and medication, procedures directed at the pylorus come into play. G-POEM is the endoscopic version. A robotic or laparoscopic pyloroplasty achieves a similar goal through small abdominal incisions and permanently widens the valve, which can occasionally cause looser stools or bile reflux because the stomach drains faster. For patients with severe weight loss and malnutrition who are too fragile for a definitive procedure, a feeding tube can restore nutrition first so a procedure can be considered safely later. In rare, severe cases unresponsive to everything else, removing most of the stomach is considered as a last resort.

A separate approach, gastric electrical stimulation with a surgically implanted device sometimes called a gastric pacemaker, suits a different subset of patients and is a device rather than a myotomy. Dr. Grandhige will tell you directly when another approach fits your situation better than G-POEM, and coordinates the referral when a device or a treatment he does not perform is the right answer. The goal of the consultation is the correct treatment, not a specific procedure.

Gastroparesis sits in the foregut, the connected system of the esophagus, stomach, and diaphragm, so a surgeon who works in that system every day reads it differently than a clinician who sees it occasionally. Dr. Gopal Grandhige has focused on foregut surgery in Tampa Bay since 2009, more than 16 years. He completed his general surgery residency and a fellowship in foregut and minimally invasive surgery at Yale New Haven Hospital, is a Founding Member of the American Foregut Society, a member of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. You can read more about his training and background on the practice’s about the surgeon page.

That foregut focus matters because gastroparesis rarely travels alone. Its symptoms overlap with GERD, with silent reflux (LPR), with the motility disorder achalasia, and with the mechanical problem of a hiatal hernia, all of which are evaluated and treated in the same practice. Sorting out which condition is actually driving your symptoms is the first job, and it is easier for a surgeon who treats all of them.

Consistency in the operating room supports the outcomes. Dr. Grandhige performs all procedures at HCA Florida South Tampa Hospital with the same anesthesia team and the same dedicated physician assistant in every case, and that physician assistant, along with long-tenured office staff, stays reachable for your questions before and after the procedure rather than handing you to an unfamiliar provider.

Tampa Bay Reflux Institute is about a 30-minute drive from Clearwater, in the South Howard (SoHo) district of South Tampa. The office is at 1315 South Howard Avenue, Suite 101, in a yellow brick building next to Sally O’Neill’s Pizza, with parking behind the restaurant.

Access is built for people coming from Pinellas County. New patients are usually seen within two weeks, and always within four. Once a diagnosis is confirmed and a plan is set, most patients move from consultation to procedure within four to eight weeks, depending on whether testing is already done. For Clearwater and other out-of-town patients, the team arranges whatever testing can be done closer to home so a single trip across the bay does more work. Patients come from across Pinellas and the wider region, including St. Petersburg, Palm Harbor, Dunedin, Largo, and the surrounding communities.