Minimally Invasive Gastric Bypass Surgery Prevents Rebound Effect
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More than 100,000 U.S. patients undergo gastric bypass surgery each year for obesity treatment. Statistics show approximately 20 percent of these patients will regain weight within a few years after the surgery, due to the stretching of the stomach. These people will be at renewed risk for diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The Center for the Treatment of Obesity at UC San Diego Medical Center now offers a new incision-free procedure to reverse weight gain after gastric bypass surgery.
“To date, procedures to revise gastric bypass surgeries have been expensive and difficult to perform, effectively leaving patients without any treatment options,” according to Dr. Santiago Horgan, M.D., director of the UC San Diego Center. “Now, with this procedure, we have a dramatically less invasive way to correct a key cause of weight regain.”
Horgan and Garth Jacobsen, M.D., performed California’s first such surgery on Wednesday, May 14, 2008. The procedure, called “ROSE” (Restorative Obesity Surgery, Endolumenal), uses instruments inserted through the mouth to reduce the size of a patient’s stomach pouch and the opening to the small intestine to help patients achieve weight loss again.
Scarless Surgery
To perform the scarless procedure, a small, flexible endoscope and surgical tools are inserted through the mouth and into the stomach pouch.
The tools, developed by USGI Medical Inc., are used to grasp, fold and stitch tissue to reduce the diameter of the stomach opening and the volume of the stomach pouch. Tissue anchors are used to create multiple, circumferential tissue folds around the stoma to reduce its diameter. No cuts are made into the patient’s skin during the procedure.
By eliminating skin incisions, this minimally-invasive procedure offers important advantages to patients including reduced risk of infection, less post-operative pain, faster recovery time, and no abdominal scars.
For recovery, patients are said to go back to normal activities a few days after the procedure. A post bariatric surgery diet and exercise plans are followed, usually similar to the regimen prescribed following initial bypass surgery. In addition, follow-up appointments and regular visits with bariatric support staff must be kept.
Candidates
Ideal candidates for the surgery are patients who were initially successful losing weight after their gastric bypass and now are regaining weight. After an initial screening, patients undergo a series of evaluations including nutritional and dietary counseling, a full medical exam, and endoscopy.
More than 15 million people in the United States suffer from severe obesity. Surgical treatment of obesity has increased significantly in recent years.
Over 200,000 individuals in the United States undergo bariatric surgery each year, and it is estimated that over 125,000 patients today are candidates waiting for a revision procedure.
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