Incisionless Weight Loss Procedures in Louisiana

Bariatric surgery has been recognized as the most effective tool for morbidly obese patients to lose weight and overcome the diseases often associated with it. However, many patients worry about the recovery time and complications associated with surgical incisions. Other patients who regained weight after gastric bypass have had limited treatment options in the past. New incisionless weight loss procedures, performed through the patient’s mouth, provide these less invasive and restorative bariatric surgery options. Incisionless weight loss surgery offers important advantages over open and laparoscopic surgery including reduced risk of infection, less post-operative pain, faster recovery time and no visible scars.

The Surgical Specialists of Louisiana offer two incisionless weight loss options to our patients:

• A procedure that helps restore gastric bypass patients’ stoma and pouch after post-gastric bypass weight regain – ROSE (Restorative Obesity Surgery, Endoluminal)
• A new incisionless weight loss procedure that decreases the capacity of a patient's stomach - POSE (Primary Obesity Surgery, Endolumenal)

The POSE procedure is currently only available through the clinical Data Registry. You may qualify for the ROSE procedure if you originally lost significant weight following gastric bypass but now find yourself regaining weight. To determine your candidacy, we will perform an initial screening followed by series of evaluations including nutritional and dietary counseling, a full medical exam and endoscopy.

Incisionless weight loss surgery is performed under general anesthesia entirely through the patient’s mouth without any external incisions into the body. In addition to the absence of visible scars, this technique results in fewer complications, less trauma, and shorter recovery time. The procedure uses a flexible tube with multiple channels for surgical instruments. The surgeon advances the tube and a small endoscope – a video camera so that the surgeon can view the operative site on a nearby video monitor – through the patient’s mouth, into the stomach. The surgeon then inserts the surgical tools through the channels of the tube to grasp the stomach tissue and create suture folds in the stomach to reduce its volume capacity in the case of the POSE procedure, or restore the original stomach pouch in the case of the ROSE procedure.

Bariatric surgeons at The Surgical Specialists of Louisiana are one of the first few, select teams in the U.S. to perform the new POSE procedure as part of the clinical Data Registry. This is also one of the few programs across the country in which patients have a choice among all available weight loss surgery options including laparoscopic gastric bypass, gastric banding, duodenal switch, and gastric sleeve procedures, in addition to POSE and ROSE.