http://www.satietyinc.com

I went in for a "survey group" a few months ago, and the leader introduced the TOGA... Same cost as Lap Band, no need for fills, and lots less pain. I would have been there in a shot had it been available a year ago.

Me too. Looks like a winner. Hope it works out. This is the first time I have seen or heard of this device,

I read an article on this today. TOGA, as it is called, is in clinical trials (not accepting any more patients for the trials). Basically, it is stomach stapling done from inside the stomach. There is a risk of esophageal damage because the device inserted through the esophagus into the stomach is about the diameter of a garden hose (has happened once so far in the trials). The article also said that after 18 months, patients had lost about 45% of their weight. Obviously, no long term statistics or information on long-term complications. They are uncertain whether this is truly an improvement over the old stomach stapling procedure. It sounds interesting in that there is no cutting. I'd imagine you might have a sore throat for a while afterwards. They have not yet applied for approval in the US because they have not completed clinical trials. It is being performed some in Europe, where approval procedures are less stringent.

It looks very interesting! I hadn't heard of this.

I have to say, it looks like it still has a stoma and that's where most band problems come from regarding band intolerance. I wouldn't do it but only because I am gun shy of having another stoma in my stomach. But it kinda looks like a cross between a band and sleeve.

Seems like it would make more sense just to go for it and have the sleeve. No Ghrelin works wonders! Not experiencing hunger is a feeling of freedom, hard to explain.

You know what seems promising about this surgery is failed bypass. When someone stretches their pouch and stoma this looks like it could have some potential. Currently they have Stomaphyx, Revise, Rose, etc., but those are proving to be big failures. It's the same concept as your link but the problem is that the clips they use to tighten up the stomach do not work, they fail and as soon as the person starts on solid food they break the clips.

Maybe if they used titanium such as your article suggests it might work better. But I'm not sure there is enough pouch to work with for this type of device on a failed bypass.

Interesting, thanks for posting it!

Yes, this IS very simliar to the procedure that is being used for people who have been able to STRETCH their pouch out after bypass. Might even be the same device.

Just another option on the horizon....pretty neat, actually.....A few years ago, there were practically NO options.....now there are almost TOO many! lol!

HH