Crospon, an Irish medical device developer, has reported that its EndoFLIP system has been used for the first time to assist in the sizing of a gastric sleeve in the newly emerging weight loss surgery technique known as gastric imbrication.
Crospon said that gastric imbrication, as a weight loss procedure, is a reversible procedure with no device required to be implanted and no stomach tissue removed. With over 200,000 people engaging in surgical weight loss procedures annually in the US the appeal and potential for such a procedure is significant.
In the case of sleeve gastrectomy a portion of the stomach is surgically removed during the weight loss procedure, whereas with the gastric imbrication procedure no stomach tissue is removed. The Cottam technique represents an enhancement to the gastric imbrication procedure which entails the placing of an EndoFLIP catheter along the lesser curve of the stomach during the procedure. The company said that the technique permits the surgeon to precisely stitch the stomach to give a desired sleeve diameter.
John O’Dea, CEO of Crospon, said: “We believe that this is a innovative use for the EndoFLIP technology, and that it fills an important need for the gastric imbrication procedure, namely providing visual feedback to the surgeon as to the size of sleeve being created.”
Larry Fulton, VP of sales at Crospon, said: “This is truly breakthrough technology to allow the surgeon to create a ‘custom sleeve’ to avoid post-operative complications. It is a perfect marriage of a new procedure and a new technology to benefit patients and to give more consistent surgical outcomes.”
Dr Daniel Cottam of Surgical Weight Loss Centre of Utah, said: “The EndoFLIP device has the ability to change the way we do bariatric surgery all over the world. There has been nothing as revolutionary as this device since the lap band. I believe in five years we won’t know how we ever did bariatric surgery without it.”