The Incisionless Bariatric Revision Procedure

Dr. Julie Ellner describes the incisionless bariatric revision procedure.

One of the hot topics right now in the field of revision surgery are the newer incisionless revision operations. There are two popular incisionless revision operations; one is called the StomaphyX procedure; one is called the ROSE procedure. They’re very similar in terms of the way they are performed because they are performed through the mouth with no incisions in the abdomen. They’re both outpatient procedures and are very, very low risk. The idea behind both of these procedures is that the surgeon inserts a scope down through the mouth into the inside of the stomach and takes tucks or takes pleats inside the stomach like you would take a tuck inside of a waistband that’s too tight. The ROSE procedure focuses more on the stoma. So if a patient has a stretched-out stoma, which is the connection between the stomach and the small intestine, that’s a good situation for a ROSE procedure. The StomaphyX focuses more on pouch-size reduction. So these two procedures are really designed for two different types of problems. The outcomes long-term haven’t been determined yet because these procedures have only been around for a couple of years. The initial research performed on the ROSE procedure is actually quite promising. It has shown that in every patient in this multicenter trial, the weight regain has stopped and patients on average have lost 30% of their regained weight by the six-month mark.