Bariatric Times - January 2009 - (Page 33)

Bariatric Times • January 2009 News & Trends 33 Bariatric News & Trends COVIDIEN RECEIVES FDA CLEARANCE TO MARKET SILS™ PORT MULTIPLE INSTRUMENT ACCESS PORT NORTH HAVEN, CT—Covidien (NYSE: COV, BSX: COV), a leading global provider of healthcare products, has announced that its surgical devices business unit has received 510(k) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration to market the Covidien SILS™ Port Multiple Instrument Access Port for laparoscopic surgeries through a single incision. The SILS™ Port is a single, flexible port that can be fitted through a small incision in the umbilicus, which results in a single “hidden scar,” a cosmetic advance over the multiple visible scars associated with standard multi-port laparoscopy. The port has the capacity for up to three laparoscopic instruments. “SILS™ Port is the first device specifically indicated for multiple instrument access to the abdomen through a single incision,” said Scott Flora, President, Surgical Devices, Covidien. “We led the first surgical revolution with multi-port laparoscopic surgery and Covidien is now leading the way again with SILS™ procedures and the new SILS™ Port, innovations that offer surgeons an immediate advancement in patient care,” he added. Laparoscopic procedures performed through a single incision are a significant evolution in the world of surgery. While laparoscopy traditionally offers better patient outcomes including less pain and improved cosmesis than the open approach, SILS™ procedures have the potential to dramatically extend these benefits. The SILS™ Port is scheduled for commercialization in the United States and Europe later this year. for symptoms of menopause may not face increased risk for this type of malignancy. The study findings are published in a recent issue of the journal Cancer. The take-home message is a familiar one, experts said: Maintain a healthy body weight. For the new study, investigators from the US National Cancer Institute followed almost 95,000 U.S. women, aged 50 to 71, for an average of seven years. Overall, obese women had a 26 percent higher chance of developing ovarian cancer than women of normal weight, a figure the researchers said was not statistically significant. However, the picture was somewhat different among subgroups of women. Obese women who had never used hormone therapy had an 80 percent higher risk of developing ovarian cancer, compared with their normalweight counterparts. There appeared to be no relationship between BMI and ovarian cancer among women who had used hormone therapy for menopausal symptoms. Obese women without a family history of the disease had a 36 percent higher risk of developing ovarian cancer, although there was no heightened risk in obese women who did have a family history. According to the study authors, the findings indicate that obesity may increase ovarian cancer risk through hormonal effects. Specifically, excess fat increases production of estrogen, which may spur the growth of ovarian cancer. But the picture is likely much more complicated than that, said Dr. Michael A. Bookman, vice president for ambulatory care and clinical research at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Overall, obese women in the study did not have a notably higher risk for ovarian cancer. The increased risk was only seen in a subgroup of the women, he noted. Study lead author Dr. Michael Leitzmann, of the National Cancer Institute, said one “possible reason for the observation that obesity might lead to increased ovarian cancer risk in women who have not used HRT versus women who have is that exogenous estrogens supplied by menopausal hormones fail to add further to the high background levels of endogenous estrogens among obese women.” MORE AMERICANS OBESE THAN MERELY OVERWEIGHT WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The number of obese American adults outweighs the number of those who are merely overweight, according to the latest statistics from the federal government. Numbers posted by the National Center for Health Statistics show that more than 34 percent of Americans are obese, compared to 32.7 percent who are overweight. It said just under 6 percent are “extremely” obese. “More than one-third of adults, or over 72 million people, were obese in 2005-2006,” the NCHS said in its report. The numbers are based on a survey of 4,356 adults over the age of 20 who take part in a regular government survey of health, said the NCHS, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The figures come from the 20052006 survey and are the most current available. “During the physical examination, conducted in mobile examination centers, height and weight were measured as part of a more comprehensive set of body measurements,” the NCHS report said. “Although the prevalence of obesity has more than doubled since 1980, the prevalence of overweight has remained stable over the same time period,” it said. OBESITY SURGERY REVERSES DIABETES IN TEENS NEW YORK (AP)—Obesity surgery can reverse diabetes in teens, just as it does in adults, according to a small study. All but one of the 11 extremely obese teens studied saw their diabetes disappear within a year after weight loss surgery, the researchers reported. The 11th patient still had diabetes, but needed much less insulin and stopped taking diabetes pills. LINK BETWEEN OBESITY AND CANCER HealthDay News—Obese postmenopausal women who have never used hormone replacement therapy may face an increased risk of ovarian cancer, compared to normal-weight women, a new study suggests. Obese women who have used hormone replacement therapy (HRT) Previous studies have shown the diabetes benefits of obesity surgery for adults. Dr. Thomas Inge, a pediatric surgeon at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and his colleagues wanted to find out if the same was true for adolescents. Although more research is needed, Inge said the study “opens the door” to weight loss surgery as a treatment option for severely obese teens with type 2 diabetes. The results are in the January issue of Pediatrics. About a third of US youngsters are either overweight or obese. Increasing numbers of obese children are being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease and the one linked to obesity. It was seldom seen before in kids. “It’s marching south through the generations, which is very scary,” said Dr. Larry Deeb, a former president of the American Diabetes Association and a spokesman for the group. Teen candidates for weight loss surgery need to be carefully selected, he said, since the long-term consequences of the operation for children aren’t yet known. The 11 patients in the study were 14 to 21 years old and all were extremely obese, ranging from 250 to 403 pounds. They were taking diabetes pills and one was on insulin. At five different medical centers, they had gastric bypass surgery, or stomach stapling, to reduce their stomach to a small pouch. They were compared to 67 mostly obese teens with diabetes at Cincinnati Children’s whose blood sugar was being controlled through diet or medication. After one year, those who had surgery had lost between 72 and 218 pounds, although none had dropped to a normal weight. For 10 of them, their diabetes was in remission and they stopped taking diabetes medicine. For the teens who didn’t have surgery, they all still had diabetes after a year and there was no difference in their weight or their use of diabetes medication. Their blood sugar levels did improve, the researchers said.

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Bariatric Times - January 2009

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