7 months ago
(CNN) -- Most obesity starts with the mouth. The more food you put in, the more weight you gain. It's only fitting that a new type of obesity operation goes through the mouth as well.
Dr. Edward Phillips with the Cedar Sinai Medical Center explains that the, "TOGA surgery is a trans-oral, natural orifice technique of stapling the stomach from inside the stomach."
It's called TOGA, or Trans-oral gastroplasty. It involves surgeons like Dr. Phillips putting a camera and a staple gun down a patient's esophagus and making a small sleeve inside the stomach.
Phillips says, "Large food takes longer to digest, eventually leading to weight loss in most patients. The procedure takes about an hour to an hour and a half. This ultimately I believe, will be able to be done as an outpatient."
Toga sounds great, with less recovery time and no scars, but some surgeons like Dr. John Sweeney are more cautious.
"I think it's a really interesting technology. Unfortunately, I think we're using this new technology to do the same operations, which in some cases have been shown not to be successful long-term," explains Dr. Sweeney.
Restrictive operations like TOGA and laparoscopic banding or lap band tend to wear out over time, which means weight gain for some patients.
The TOGA procedure has done well in clinical trials, but experts say more long term data is definitely needed.
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