Spain: new robotic stomach-folding technique reduces complications in bariatric surgery
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Spanish doctors are claiming a breakthrough in bariatric surgery with a new technique to treat morbid obesity. The robot-assisted, laparoscopic technique involves folding the wall of the stomach inwards, instead of stapling the stomach to form a small pouch. The technique had been trialled before manually on some 20 patients, with a “low” incidence of “minor” side effects (two out of 20 patients), according to El País. The robot-assisted procedure reduces the risk of complications to “minimal levels”, Jordi Pujol, head of bariatric surgery at Barcelona’s Bellvitge hospital, reportedly claimed. The equipment used was the da Vinci robot-assisted surgery system, developed by US company Intuitive Surgical.