9/04/07
Dean Mikami, MD, at Ohio State University Medical Center, is performing revision weight loss surgery without making a single incision. According to Mikami, the technique could not only help patients maintain their weight loss, but it could reduce risks in the operating room.
Physicians often have to do follow-up surgery to tighten up the pouches. However, cutting the patient open again can carry a lot of risk. Mikami’s technique for gastric bypass with revision operation is performed entirely through the patient’s mouth.
"The major difference is now our patients don’t receive any incisions," says Mikami. "Instead they have a procedure that can be done as an out-patient with a much lower rate of complication."
By feeding tiny instruments through the mouth, Mikami creates pleats inside the patient’s stomach to reduce its size, which helps patients limit food intake and once again lose the weight.
Currently, the procedure is only performed on patients who need follow-up surgery to their initial gastric bypass operations.
According to plastic surgeons at Ohio State University Medical Center, the technique could someday be used as a first option for patients who desperately need to lose weight.
[www.medicalnewstoday.com, September 1, 2007]
