Since the 1920s, the gold standard for the treatment of Achalasia, a disorder of the esophagus that affects nearly 24,000 patients in the U.S., has been a surgical procedure known as the Heller myotomy. The treatment traditionally involved an open surgical procedure, either through the chest or through the abdomen, after which the lower esophageal sphincter was cut to allow food to pass through. In recent years, this procedure was adapted to a laparoscopic approach which involved multiple small incisions instead of one large one.