Saturday, October 1, 2011

Revisional Bariatric Surgery Using Natural Orifices

Bariatric surgery has proven to be a very effective weight loss treatment. Gastric bypass surgery is the most popular form of the surgery -- at least in the U.S. However, the surgery can cause complications. And revisional surgery is sometimes necessary to address these complications. Incisionless surgery has been used, successfully, to perform this surgery.

M.A. deWolfe of the Brody School of Medicine in Greenville, NC, reported that an "endoscopic tissue plicating device" was used to reduce the size of an expanded pouch. The device is the StomaphyX (TM) Endoplicator. The surgery was performed on a patient, who had undergone gastric bypass surgery 12 years earlier. There were no complications associated with the revisional surgery, and a year after the surgery, the patient's satiety returned and the patient had lost 45 pounds.

We have talked about the StomaphyX device before on this blog. The device is an incisionless surgical tool created by EndoGastric Solutions ™. We indicated that the tool could be used in bariatric revisional surgery. We also suggested that incisionless surgery reduces the trauma, recovery time, and complications a patient can experience after weight loss surgery.

The above referenced study appears to show that the StomaphyX device holds promise, since the surgery leads to weight loss. Indeed, as we've previously stated on this blog, incisionless surgery might be a successful approach to primary bariatric surgery.

One of the deterrents to bariatric surgery is the amount of invasiveness associated with the most effective forms of the surgery -- gastric bypass for example. Therefore, employing incisionless weight loss surgery for the primary procedure could be a good thing for prospective patients as well as the surgical weight loss center. And this procedure could be a positive step forward for bariatric surgery.

At any rate, bariatric surgical centers should consider natural orifice procedures for revisional surgery. If managing the complications isn't effective. revisional surgical using devices such as StomaphyX could offer a viable alternative.

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