Surgeons Dr. Santiago Horgan and Dr. Mark Talamini at the University of California San Diego Medical Center preformed the surgery on Jeff Scholz, a 42-year-old La Jolla, Calif., resident

"I had to have my appendix removed and the opportunity to participate in something so innovative sounded enticing," Scholz said in a statement. "A day after surgery, I have little pain, a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10."

The purpose of this clinical trial is to test more "patient-focused" techniques for minimally invasive surgery with the goal of fewer incisions, less pain and more rapid recoveries, Talamini said.

"Only one small incision to insert a small camera in the belly button was required to complete the surgery versus three incisions required for a laparoscopic procedure," Horgan said. "The patient was discharged 20 hours after surgery."

Horgan and Talamini used the EndoSurgical Operating System, which is passed through the patient's mouth and into the stomach where a small incision was made in the stomach wall to pass the instrument through to the appendix.