Achalasia is an esophageal condition that makes eating miserable for patients. It is often misdiagnosed as GERD. Kristen Wong, M.D., a gastrointestinal surgeon, and Sergio Sanchez-Luna, M.D., a gastroenterologist, discuss POEM, a new minimally invasive technique of treating achalasia without incisions. Learn about how this technique results in comparable outcomes to the traditional surgical procedure for achalasia with distinct advantages in patient quality of life. The doctors discuss the importance of surgeon experience, patient selection, and transparency about side effects when offering this procedure.

Treating laryngeal cancer early and precisely can preserve patients’ ability to speak and swallow. Bharat Panuganti, M.D., discusses the innovations in transoral laser microsurgery (TLM) that have made it an alternative to radiotherapy for treating early-staged laryngeal cancer. He discusses his use of the potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) laser in this procedure, which targets hemoglobin in the cancerous tissue and limits damage to non-cancerous tissue. Learn more about the current importance of surgeon experience in performing TLM successfully, as well as the research Dr. Panuganti is conducting to possibly use robotics to close that experience gap.

Biologics and monoclonal antibodies can help those with severe allergies avoid flare-ups and spend less time seeing their allergists. Miranda Curtiss, M.D., a pulmonologist and allergist, discusses the individualized process of selecting the best biologic agent among several for patients: phenotyping, investigating comorbidities, testing effectiveness, and continued monitoring. Dr. Curtis explains how the UAB asthma clinic helps patients choose whether to receive the medication at home or at the infusion clinic based on preference and cost (patients often need help navigating the insurance and financial hurdles of these life-changing treatments).

Fibrotic lung disease is a group of around 200 entities that have inflammation and/or fibrosis in common. The “progressive” phenotype of pulmonary fibrosis has recently become more well-defined. Tejaswini Kulkarni, M.D., explains the characteristics of progressive pulmonary fibrosis (PPF). She discusses the importance of recognizing when interstitial lung disease is indeed PPF and addressing it with a combination of immunosuppressive and antifibrotic therapies. Learn about the advantages of interdisciplinary care for patients with PPF, including early recognition and management of worsening lung function; use of pulmonary rehabilitation and supplemental oxygen for better quality of life; and walking patients through the lung transplant process when necessary.

Jeffrey Nix MD and Soroush Rais-Bahrami, MD highlight focal therapy concepts and options for prostate cancer. With regard to functional preservation, as focal therapy may preserve functionality for some well-selected patients at the cost of a higher risk of progression before definitive treatment can be performed, they speak about how for many intermediate-risk patients for whom the risk of progression with active surveillance is unacceptably high, but for whom quality of life with whole-gland treatment would be too low, focal therapy offers a possible solution. Lastly, they share novel focal therapy modalities that are being investigated at UAB Medicine.

Conley Carr MD discusses early rehabilitation management of lower extremity amputees. He shares how pain is handled in the acute and chronic amputee and the timeline of how long amputees stay in the hospital initially and how long until they can obtain a prosthesis. Additionally, he highlights the therapy they need during the acute and chronic phase and some of the most common issues that amputees face when they start using prosthetics.