February 17, 2011
TOGA Weight Loss Procedure – Incision Free Bariatric Surgery
A new endoscopic surgical procedure is helping patients lose weight and avoid the scars.
A new scarless procedure known as TOGA is changing the face of bariatric surgery. This incision free treatment helps patients to lose weight as with other bariatric weight loss surgeries, but this procedure is doesn’t need a scalpel.
“This is quite different,” says Dr. Gregg Nishi of the Khalili Center for Bariatric Care in Beverly Hills. “You wouldn’t really even put it in the same category with the other bariatric surgeries.” He says that all of the other weight loss operations involve cutting through the stomach to get to the internal organs. TOGA on the other hand, is endoscopic.
“The TOGA is a new wave of technology which involves endoscopic procedures where you put devices down the mouth and in the esophagus and operate on the stomach from within,” describes Dr. Nishi.
“Once you remove those instruments, you’re done and you’re scarless. You have no abdominal incisions.”
The TOGA System is a set of flexible devices designed to be inserted through the mouth into the stomach to staple the stomach, limiting its capacity and giving patients a feeling of fullness after a small meal.
Some try to say TOGA is a safer or better option, but Dr. Nishi says the one sure thing he can say for it is that it avoids many of the traditional risks of abdominal surgery. “You avoid wound infections, incision hernias and other injuries from the instruments going into your abdomen and your stomach.” He notes however, that there is a new risk of damage to the esophagus.
The procedure has recently completed FDA trials and the data is being analyzed. According to Dr. Nishi, the information looks very promising but that more work needs to be done on the technology.
– http://www.americanhealthandbeauty.com/articles/?article=4208