Incisionless Procedure To Reduce Weight Regain 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,” said Santiago Horgan, M.D., director of the UC San Diego Center for the Treatment of Obesity. “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.

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. 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.

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.

The Center for the Treatment of Obesity at UC San Diego Medical Center makes a long-term commitment to patients’ health and guides them from pre-surgery consultation and testing through surgery, recovery and continuing support. The program specializes in laparoscopic weight-loss surgery, including adjustable gastric lap banding and Roux-en-y Gastric Bypass.