New award to improve weight-loss surgery

Irish company Crospon Ltd has been granted a Strategic Translation Award of over £1million by the Wellcome Trust to improve the outcomes of gastric banding procedures.

Wednesday 25th November 2009

The company will use the Award to develop BaroFLIP, a device that can be used to measure the pouch and passageway in gastric banding, a type of weight-loss surgery. To do this, Crospon is modifying its EndoFLIP imaging system, which measures the dimensions of different components of the gastrointestinal tract. It is currently used to assess severe heartburn.

In gastric banding, a band is placed around the upper stomach, narrowing the passageway through which food passes and limiting the amount a person can consume. It's essential, but can be difficult, to get the pouch the right size the first time. As a result, patients frequently require repeated visits to their doctor to get the band adjusted.

Crospon hopes that BaroFLIP will help surgeons replace the current 'hit-and-miss' approach with one that allows them to measure the pouch and passageway directly, and remove the need for multiple adjustments of the band. The device should also be useful for assessing the size of the pouch if patients fail to lose weight as expected after surgery.

View this news story on the Wellcome Trust website;

http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/2009/News/WTX057639.htm