Motility Specialist Gastroparesis In Clearwater, FL

There’s no cure for gastroparesis. Treatment controls symptoms and keeps you nourished, and it escalates only as far as it needs to.

Care moves in a ladder. Nutrition comes first, because the single most important goal is keeping calories and nutrients adequate: smaller and more frequent meals, well-cooked and lower-fat foods, and a dietitian when it helps. Next is medication. AGA guidance points to metoclopramide or erythromycin as the initial promotility options, alongside anti-nausea medication for symptom control.

When symptoms stay refractory to diet and medication, the pylorus becomes the target, and this is where Dr. Grandhige’s range matters. He performs the endoscopic per-oral pyloromyotomy, also called POP or G-POEM, which is done entirely through the mouth with no external incisions and which few surgeons in Tampa Bay offer. He also performs robotic or laparoscopic pyloroplasty, places feeding tubes for patients too malnourished for a definitive procedure, and, in rare and severe cases, performs a subtotal gastrectomy as a last resort.

Here’s the honest picture on outcomes. Published studies put endoscopic pyloromyotomy’s clinical response at roughly two-thirds of carefully selected patients, and the AGA reserves it for people whose symptoms don’t respond to medical therapy. The same guidance notes real gaps in the evidence for surgical pyloric procedures and advises against routine gastric electrical stimulation, so shared decision-making is the standard, not a sales pitch. If a different path fits you better, including options this practice doesn’t offer such as a gastric stimulator or an investigational drug trial, Dr. Grandhige will say so.

You should see a specialist when delayed-emptying symptoms are constant, getting worse, or not controlled by medication, especially alongside weight loss or hard-to-manage diabetes.

The causes shape who’s at risk. Many cases have no identifiable cause. Others trace to diabetes: up to half of people with diabetes have some delayed gastric emptying, though most have no symptoms or only mild ones. Vagus nerve injury during prior surgery on the esophagus or stomach is another known cause, and certain medications, including opioids and some antidepressants, can slow emptying further.

Consider a specialist evaluation if any of these fit:

• You feel full after a few bites, and that early fullness has caused weight loss you didn’t intend.
• You have chronic nausea that medication doesn’t control.
• You vomit undigested food hours after a meal.
• You deal with severe bloating and abdominal distension most days.
• You have diabetes and suspect your blood-sugar swings are tied to slow emptying.
• You had surgery on your esophagus or stomach and now have new digestive problems.
• You’ve already been diagnosed with gastroparesis, but your current treatment isn’t working.
• You’ve seen several gastroenterologists without a clear diagnosis or plan.

Dr. Gopal Grandhige is a board-certified general surgeon who has focused his practice on foregut surgery since 2009 and treats gastroparesis as part of that work.

His training is specific to this field. He earned his medical degree at the University of Michigan, completed general surgery residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and finished fellowships in foregut and minimally invasive surgery there as well, after a biology degree from Johns Hopkins. He’s a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a member of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, and a founding member of the American Foregut Society. You can read more about Dr. Grandhige’s background on the practice site, and patients can independently verify his standing through the American Board of Surgery and the Florida Department of Health license lookup.

Volume and consistency back the judgment. Across his foregut practice he has performed over 600 fundoplications, over 600 LINX procedures, and over 200 transoral incisionless fundoplications, and he’s one of a handful of surgeons in Tampa Bay performing endoscopic pyloromyotomy for gastroparesis. Every operation happens at one hospital, HCA South Tampa, with the same operating-room team and the same dedicated physician assistant who also handles follow-up. His office medical assistants have worked with him for over a decade, and he takes direct after-hours calls himself. Beyond gastroparesis, he treats the full range of foregut conditions, including hiatal hernias, GERD, silent reflux, and achalasia.

From Clearwater, the office is about a 30 to 40 minute drive to South Tampa, and the team is built to keep your trips to a minimum.

Send your prior records ahead of your first visit, so Dr. Grandhige reviews everything before you sit down: previous endoscopy and pathology reports, any pH or manometry results, imaging, and notes from your gastroenterologist, ENT, or primary care doctor. Email them to info@tampareflux.com. New patients are usually seen within two weeks and always within four. Where a test can be done closer to you in Pinellas, the team arranges it locally so you’re not crossing the bay for every step. When a procedure is the plan, the timeline from consultation to surgery is generally four to eight weeks, and the office handles the insurance authorization for you. You can also browse the practice’s patient-education articles on reflux and foregut conditions while you decide.