| New procedure could help millions
CHARLOTTE -- Carolinas Medical Center has performed a first of its kind procedure in the United States to help the obese and those suffering from type two diabetes, as part of a national study.
The procedure is similar to a gastric bypass, but doesn't require surgery.
"There's currently about 15-million Americans who are categorized as morbidly obese," said Chief of Bariatric Surgery at CMC Keith Gersin.
Gersin said 90-95 percent of other methods to lose weight fail, a reason why this new procedure opens up new opportunities for these patients.
"We'd like to think of it as more effective than current medications for the treatment of obesity and less invasive than surgery," said Gersin.
Gersin was the first to install the Endobarrier Gastrointestinal Liner in the country.
Obese surgery better in better hospitals
Bariatric surgery patients had 64 percent fewer complications and a 26 percent shorter hospital stay if they went to a five-star rated U.S. hospital.
The study of bariatric surgery outcomes at hospitals in 19 states from 2003 to 2005 also found that five-star rated hospitals -- those with better-than-average patient outcomes -- performed about twice the number of procedures compared with hospitals that rated poorly, according to the study released by HealthGrades, the healthcare ratings company.
The study also found a clear trend away from traditional, more invasive gastric bypass to a less invasive laparoscopic procedure, according to the second annual HealthGrades Bariatric Surgery Trends in American Hospitals.
More than 70 percent of the surgeries done in 2005 were laparoscopic, which are associated with fewer in-hospital complications than traditional gastric bypass.
New Non-Invasive Weight-Loss Surgery at Mercy Medical Center
In the first operations of their kind in the Northeast, a bariatric surgery team at Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre, New York has performed a unique non-invasive weight loss procedure that uses a new device that reduces the size of a patient's stomach without the need for any incisions. .
Satiety Inc. raises $30M
Stomach stapling device maker Satiety Inc. raised $30 million in its fourth round of venture funding. Palo Alto-based Satiety was born in 2001 out of two medical device company incubators -- Thomas Fogarty Engineering and the Foundry. It makes a device, not yet approved by regulators, for stapling the stomach to help patients lose weight. A surgeon can insert the device through a patient's mouth and throat to reach the stomach, making the procedure less risky than other types of bariatric surgery. .
Neuropathy, gastric bypass linked
Sami Harik did not think it was an accident that he was seeing neurological problems in patients who had had gastric bypass surgery. Harik, chair of the department of neurology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, got some flak when he told a patient who'd had the weight-reduction procedure that her neurological symptoms were being caused by a vitamin deficiency brought on by the surgery. The patient reported what Harik said to her surgeon, and the surgeon sent Harik a “frosty letter," challenging Harik to produce data. Now, Harik and colleagues in the neurology department, including lead investigator Dr. Katalin Juhasz-Pocsine, have published a study based on patients who've been treated by the department for the last 10 years. The results, reported in the May 22 issue of the medical journal “Neurology": Of the 150 patients who'd had the Roux-en-Y bypass surgery before being treated at UAMS' Neurology Clinic, the symptoms in 26 patients could be directly linked to the surgery.
Robot-Assisted Bedside Visits Reduced Hospital Stays
A US study has shown that using a "robot" to help remotely visit patients who have had noncomplicated surgery helps surgeons to be in two places at one time and this results in shorter hospital stays.
The study is published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons and is the work of Dr Alex Gandsas of the Division of Bariatric and Minimally Invasive Surgery, Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, in Maryland, and colleagues.
The reason for the study was primarily a financial one; as healthcare costs continue to rise, the need to reduce length of hospital stay, without impacting quality of care, grows too.
Gandsas and colleagues retrospectively reviewed the records for 376 patients who had a laparoscopic gastric bypass to treat morbid obesity between the start of 2004 to the middle of 2006.
Finding hope in donations of 'excess' skin
Like an empty bag of skin. That's how Nina Esile describes the flab that protruded from her stomach to her pelvic area after four pregnancies -- including twins 13 years ago -- left her abdominal muscles severely damaged. The more Esile dieted and exercised -- she dropped 50 pounds over the past two years -- the larger her "bag of skin" became. It got to the point that the Newburyport software writer, a 44-year-old single mother of five, couldn't bear to look at herself in the mirror. Then Dr. Beverly Shafer, a Beverly surgeon who was poised to repair Esile's abdomen and perform a tummy tuck in May, asked if she'd be willing to donate the large slab of skin about to be removed. It never entered Esile's mind that the very flab that had caused her so much misery could be transformed into something that could help others.
Bobby's Battle: The Follow-up
You may have noticed that you're seeing a lot less of, Bob Barry, Jr. and he's happy about it. Bobby underwent gastric bypass surgery just about a month ago at Foundation Bariatric Hospital. How much weight has he lost?
NewsChannel 4's Linda Cavanaugh goes one-on-one with Bobby and his wife, Gina as they talk about the ups and down of the last four weeks. At Bobby's latest doctor's appointment his visit with the dietitian ended with a scolding. Hospital personnel had their hands full, last June, wheeling Bobby into the operation room. He weighed 321 pounds at his heaviest. Gastric bypass was a last resort. No diet seemed to work. He'd tried them all. Surgeons reduced his stomach to the size of a man's thumb. It holds only about two tablespoons of food.
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