Endoluminal Suturing Being Studied to Reverse WR/IWL After Initial Bariatric Surgery
The December 2013 issue of San Francisco Medicine, the Journal of the San Francisco Medical Society, reportes on the pioneering work of Matthew Y.C. Lin, M.D. and Stanley J. Rogers, M.D., who are among those pioneering an incisionless endoscopic procedure called endoluminal suturing for patients who either have either: 1) gained weight 2) or failed to lose sufficient weight following bariatric surgery. This describes a phenomenon know as WR/IWL that occurs in 1 in 5 or 20% of bariatric surgery patients.
It has been observed that the initial gastric bypass anatomy may enlarge or dilate allowing food to empty faster, greatly reducing the efficacy of the initial surgery. The standard approach has been to do revisional bariatric surgery, typically laparoscopically, to restore the initial restrictive anatomy. Unfortuanately, these surgeries must be often be converted to an open procedure, with significant attendant risk for the patient.
San Francisco Medicine notes that early clinical trials for this procedure demonstrated high patient satisfaction along with good safety and efficacy outcomes. The current study seeks to further study this approach to reverse WR/IWL.
Endoscopic Surgery for Bariatric Revision After Weight Loss Failure (UCSF Clinical Trial)