World-renowned “Achalasia-POEM center”

Haru Inoue, MD, director of the Digestive Disease Center, performed the world’s first Per-Oral Endoscopic Myotomy (POEM) for achalasia in 2008.

Advantages compared to surgery
　- The traditional surgical myotomy (Heller is one of the most common) requires either 1 large or several small incisions in the abdomen or chest. POEM is an “incisionless” procedure.
　- With POEM, it is actually easier to perform a longer myotomy than with surgery because we have access to the entire length of the esophagus from inside the lumen.
　- POEM can be successfully performed as the initial treatment or after other previous treatments (including Botox, Balloon Dilation, or Heller Myotomy) have failed.
　- POEM is also the only effective treatment for non-achalasia esophageal motility disorders such as nutcracker esophagus, jackhammer esophagus, or diffuse esophageal spasm.
　- POEM should be considered the first-line, gold standard treatment for esophageal achalasia.

Specialized Achalasia Team
　- As of February 2015, the team at Showa University Koto-Toyosu Hospital has performed more than 840 cases of POEM with no major complications.
　- The clinical success rate of POEM in our center is over 95%.
　- The youngest patient treated in our center was 3 years old, and the oldest was 89 years old.
　- The team is experienced in managing cases of advanced sigmoid achalasia, as well as performing POEM after prior achalasia treatments, including Botox, Balloon Dilation, or Heller Myotomy.
　- The same team is also experienced in performing esophagectomy, which can treat the symptoms of “end-stage” achalasia that do not respond to any other interventions.

Showa University Koto-Toyosu Hospital
　- Koto-Toyosu hospital is centrally located in Tokyo, Japan, which is serviced by two large international airports (HND & NRT).
　- The hospital opened in March 2014 with brand-new, modern equipment.
　- Hospital signs are bilingual (Japanese & English), and many of the doctors, nurses, and administrative staff are able to support patients in English.


If you have any question, please contact Dr. Noboru Yokoyama (Associate Professor,
E-mail:noboru.y@med.showa-u.ac.jp).