Repeat Gastric Bypass Surgery - Without Cutting

For the first time ever, surgeons in the U.S. have performed weight loss surgery without making a single incision. It's a ground-breaking method used to revisit gastric bypass operations. It could not only help patients maintain their weight loss, it could also reduce risks in the operating room.


Like a lot of patients who undergo weight loss surgery, initial results for Millie Coleman were astounding. She lost more than half her body weight - dropping from more than 380 pounds to less than 160. But over the years, the pounds and the anxiety began creeping back into her life.


"I was terrified that I was going to end up weighing what I did before," says Coleman.


With the stress of going back to college, Millie had put back on more than 40 pounds that she'd lost after her first surgery. Doctors say that's fairly common. Gastric bypass works by creating a pouch in the stomach to hold smaller amounts of food. Over time, it can loosen.


"The pouches can stretch out probably 10 to 20% over the course of 3 to 5 years," says Dean Mikami, MD, at Ohio State University Medical Center.


Doctors often have to do follow up surgery to tighten up the pouches. But cutting the patient open again can carry a lot of risk. That's why Dr. Mikami tried a new approach. He's the first surgeon in the country to follow a gastric bypass with a revision operation that goes entirely through the patient's mouth.


"The major difference is now our patients don't receive any incisions. Instead they have a procedure that can be done as an out-patient with a much lower rate of complication," says Dr. Mikami.


By feeding tiny instruments through the mouth, doctors create pleats inside the patient's stomach to reduce its size. That helps patients limit food intake and once again lose the weight.


"I love feeling this alive. It's something I never, ever anticipated, I just dreamt about it," says Coleman.


Millie was the first patient ever in the U.S. to get the surgery. She says she was home and recovering in less than two hours. Right now, the procedure is only being done on patients who need follow-up surgery to their initial bypass operations. Surgeons at Ohio State University Medical Center say someday they would like to see it used as a first option for patients who desperately need to lose weight.

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