New advances in minimally invasive surgery are impacting a range of surgical procedures, reducing surgical time, scarring and recovery time. Bariatric surgery is benefiting from these advances in technology and many new techniques for incision-free weight loss surgery are being developed. The Consumer Guide to Bariatric Surgery recently added information on one of the more recently developed techniques called transoral gastroplasty. This technique, like many other minimally invasive procedures, utilizes body orifices to obtain access to body cavities, thus allowing surgeons to perform procedures on interior organs without cutting the skin. During the transoral gastroplasty (Toga) procedure, surgeons enter through the throat and staple the stomach from the inside. The procedure is being developed by Satiety, Inc, a medical device company from California and, as of October 2009, has not been approved for general use by the FDA.
