Undergoing bariatric surgery has been shown to impart many advantages for men and women battling obesity. But despite its many potential benefits, it is still surgery. So, any methods for minimizing these procedures’ pain and discomfort would be very welcome. Well, there may be good news for morbidly obese men and women, in the form of a revolutionary procedure requiring no cutting or slicing!

The subject of a groundbreaking medical trial, this experimental procedure was recently performed at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. With this procedure, physicians first pass a tube down the patient’s throat. Then, they sew a series of tiny pleats into the patient’s stomach, using a tiny needle. These pleats narrow the stomach, making it difficult for patients to consume large amounts of food.

The Benefits for Bariatric Surgery Patients

The absence of a knife means that surgeons do not have to cut into the abdomen. As such, the patient avoids the likelihood of traditional surgery, such as bleeding, scarring and infections. “This is less invasive, and patients would have a very quick recovery, potentially with no post-procedure abdominal pain,” said Dr. Christopher Thompson, director of bariatric endoscopy at Brigham. “Patients could be home within a couple hours of this procedure, instead of spending at least a night in the hospital.”

The bottom line? There is a growing need for obesity procedures; an estimated 15 million Americans are now considered overweight enough to qualify. However, this knifeless procedure provides obese patients with a much safer, less traumatic alternative for morbidly obese patients. While they may benefit the most, these patients are also more at risk for surgical complications. This new surgical technique may also benefit patients who are overweight, yet not heavy enough for the traditional procedure. Typically, federal laws prohibit those under 100 pounds from undergoing weight loss surgery.

State-of-the-Art, Yet Grounded in History

While this knifeless technique represents the future of bariatric surgery, it has actually been the subject of multiple studies. Surgeons have already performed multiple scarless procedures (including those for pancreatic lesions and gallbladder surgery) throughout the country. It is actually based on Venezuelan research involving 64 patients; after one year, promising results were reported.

For the Brigham and the Cleveland Clinic medical trial, the knifeless weight loss surgical technique was modified and refined, and then received FDA approval. As of now, this technique still has several obstacles to overcome, and will not be available to patients for several years.

Nevertheless, Brigham and Women’s Hospital has accumulated four years of data showing the success of these knifeless techniques, typically for repairing torn bypass sites. In fact, the hospital has performed 400 of these procedures, with no complications being reported.

“We need to be careful and not jump into this until [doctors] are adequately trained. There is no data out there that tells us how this is going to go,” says Dr. Scott Shikora, chief of surgery and bariatric surgery at Tufts Medical Center. “This has the potential to be the next breakthrough, to be the next stage of less invasive surgery. The concern is that there will be a learning curve with that. There might be some complications.”