Caitlin Whyte (Host): This is St. Joseph's Health MedCast. I'm Caitlin Whyte. With me today is Dr. Beata Belfield, an advanced GI and general surgeon from St. Joseph's Health. We're diving into GERD relief options at St. Joseph's Health, focusing on the innovations available at the Heartburn Center.

Well, Doctor, to start us off today, can you tell us how common is heartburn?

Beata Belfield, MD, FACS: Hi Caitlin. Thanks so much for this question. The reason why we talk about heartburn is because it's super common. A lot of people in America have heartburn. Some estimates say about 60 million people in America have heartburn at least once a month, and a smaller portion of those people have daily symptoms that require medication or other therapy.

Host: And what is the Heartburn Center at St. Joseph's?

Beata Belfield, MD, FACS: The Heartburn Center at St. Joseph's is this very unique place in Central New York where gastroenterologists and surgeons work hand in hand taking patient's through all their options for heartburn therapy. It's a place to get testing, the latest medication options, and also all of the most up-to-date surgical or procedural options for heartburn.

Host: And what is new or unique about St. Joseph's approach?

Beata Belfield, MD, FACS: St. Joseph's approach is very cutting-edge. So in addition to the classic surgical procedures for heartburn called fundoplication, we also now offer a new technique called endoscopic fundoplication. It's abbreviated tif, TIF, standing for transoral incisionless fundoplication. And it's new in the last few years.

It really blew up on the west coast, and different centers across the country are adopting it. It creates a one-way valve to let food into the stomach and not let acid up into the throat. But it does it through an endoscopy instead of a surgical approach.

Host: Wonderful. Well, how does TIF add to existing therapy options?

Beata Belfield, MD, FACS: Since it's new in the last few years, TIF doesn't have long-term follow-up data, but its early follow-up data is very promising for avoiding some of the known issues with the classic fundoplication. About one in four people will have increased bloating in the abdomen after getting a classic fundoplication.

And TIF seems to have less bloating effects after surgery, but equal anti-reflux effects.

Host: Great. We'll wrap it up for us today. Why is this so important for Central New York?

Beata Belfield, MD, FACS: I think it's just fantastic that St. Joseph's has established a cutting-edge therapy center. We have typical fundoplication offerings. We have most of the most advanced testing for heartburn, and we also offer magnetic sphincter augmentation as well as this newest procedure option, the TIF. Usually that is done in conjunction with a hiatal hernia repair because hiatal hernias also contribute to heartburn.

So that's a procedure called cTIF. And it's just amazing that we are the only center in Central New York to offer that.

Host: Thank you so much for joining us. That was Dr. Beata Belfield. For more information or to request an appointment, go to Sjhsyr.org or call 1-866-HRT-BURN. That's 1-866-478-2876. The Heartburn Center accepts self-referrals. If you enjoyed this podcast, please share it on your social channels and check out our entire podcast library.

I'm Caitlin Whyte, and this is St. Joseph's Health, MedCast. Thanks for listening.