New procedure cures heartburn

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Heartburn affects millions of Americans.

And now, Cedar Park Regional Medical Center is the first hospital in Central Texas that is offering a new procedure that doctors said can get rid of it forever.

"As soon as I woke up, I would have acid running up and down my chest," said Clayton Glezman, a heartburn sufferer. "I didn't want to eat. I didn't want to drink anything."

For 10 years, heartburn was a big problem for Glezman.

"I've tried Prevacid, Zantac. I've tried Nexium," said Glezman. "Everything would work for three- or four weeks, and then it would quit."

For this 23-year-old who is training to become an Austin firefighter , he decided enough was enough and saw Dr. Thomas Bening at Cedar Park Regional Medical Center.

It turns out that heartburn can be more than a nasty feeling.

"It can actually cause a chemical-like burn to the esophagus and lining of the stomach," said Bening, a general surgeon at Austin Regional Clinic in Cedar Park.

Now, a new procedure is being done that is incisionless, called TIF . A device goes over a camera, down your throat and into your stomach.

"The device uses a small H-shaped, plastic closing device, which allows us to reshape the valve from inside the stomach rather than doing it surgically from outside the stomach," said Bening.

For Glezman, relief was instantaneous.

"Now I'm back to normal," said Glezman.

And according to doctors, this new procedure will keep him that way forever.