Lose Weight Without Making a Cut
Incision-free procedure reduces weight gain some patients experience after gastric bypass surgery
By MARIANNE KUSHI
Updated 8:01 AM PST, Thu, Jul 2, 2009
Gastric bypass fails to produce long-term weight loss for up to half of the people who had the surgery -- now, though, a new procedure offers them hope.
Gastric bypass surgery became a familiar weight-loss procedure after celebrities like The Today Show's Al Roker and comedienne Roseanne Barr publicized their experiences. Singer Carnie Wilson underwent the surgery at California's Alvarado Hospital.
As time has told, it's not the answer to permanent weight loss. Up to 50 percent of patients who underwent gastric bypass surgery begin to regain weight after two years, according to specialists at UC San Diego's Center for the Treatment of Obesity.
Now there is a new procedure called ROSE (Restorative Obesity Surgery, Endolumenal) being offered to help former gastric bypass patients. The surgery is scarless. Doctors insert instruments through the mouth to recreate the restriction the patient had after gastric bypass surgery. ROSE is an outpatient procedure that reduces both the diameter of the stomach's opening and the volume of the stomach's pouch.
But not all gastric bypass surgery patients qualify.
"There are not many options to repair a failing gastric bypass," said Dr. Santiago Horgan, of UCSD's Center for the Treatment of Obesity, in a news release. "Invasive procedures to restore the anatomy are complicated and risky for most patients. In comparison, there were not significant complications associated with ROSE, and most of the patients lost clinically relevant amounts of weight."
ROSE is so new that most insurance companies do not cover the procedure, which costs between $13,000 and $16,000.
First Published: Jul 2, 2009 7:50 AM PST
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