Endoscopic Stomach reduction and/or Stomach Plication

Hi! Does anyone know anything about - Endoscopic Stomach reduction and/or Stomach Plication???  I had WLS two years ago and went from 343 to 213. It's 130 lbs off, but according to BMI (35) I'm still considered obese. My weight has been at a stand still for the past 6-months, and I'm becoming a bit discouraged. My dream was to go down to 150, but at this point, I'd settle for under 200-lbs. I recently went for a visit with the nutritionist, at my Dr's office. She explained a procedue that the doctor is now doing a procedure for people whose pouch has stretched or and have stopped losing weight or are gaining.  I'm not sure whether my pouch has stretched or not, but there are some meals when I eat very little and there are other times when I'm amazed at how much I've eaten; a lot depends on how long the last meal was and what it is that I'm eating. Has anyone heard of the procedure? Has anyone out there had the same problem? Thanks, Nan C

Hi Nan, Yes I know about it because my surgeon and yours are doing it and my Mom will be their first case! Dr. Garber and Holover will be doing the StomaPhyx procedure. It makes your stomach back to how it was 4 weeks post-op, as well as your stoma. We did lots of reading about it and it really seems like the "way of the future" except that they are doing it as of July 18th!!! Here is an article that is pretty simple to understand, followed by a link to another article that's a bit more technical.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Gastric Bypass 're-dos' With No Incision

U.S. firm EndoGastric Solutions said Monday its device StomaphyX has been used successfully in five transoral, "redo" obesity procedures. Obesity re-do procedures are for patients who, after having gastric bypass surgery, have regained their weight. The company said that in each procedure the patient's stomach pouch was reduced to 50 percent its original size in a 20-minute, post-gastric bypass process that required no incision. All five patients experienced the onset of satiety and a significant change in their eating habits, said their stomachs felt similar to the four- to five-week period after the original surgery, and began to lose excess weight, the company added. The procedures were done in December at Sint-Blasius Hospital in Dendermonde, Belgium. "For the first time, we have been able to achieve similar near-term results as we would hope to achieve with a laparoscopic gastric redo-procedure but through a fully trans-oral procedure," said Jacques Himpens, a physician who has performed more than 600 gastric redo-procedures and more than 6,000 bariatric procedures. "This breakthrough procedure is important for the future of both bariatric surgery and gastroenterology since we are dealing with an extremely fragile patient population who often cannot undergo a second or third surgical procedure," said Michel Cremer, another physician who performs the surgeries. "When these patients return for a follow up visit and have regained their weight, they are devastated from a psychological standpoint and, until now, they were faced with the prospect of yet another serious surgery or the risk of becoming morbidly obese again." Standard bariatric revision surgery is time-consuming and has a high complication rate, experts say.

-------------------------------------------- For info on StomaPhyx: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=60372 Good luck!!! Keep us posted!

How exciting for your mom, Karen. Speaking of "wave of the future," Dr. Garber told me that the next goal is to have all WLS done endoscopally! It's hard to imagine, but I guess laprascopic was once hard to imagine too.

I have tried 3 x to send info form home but my laptop is dying, can u send me email I will forward [email protected]