Apollo Endosurgery touts results of stomach-suturing study

Apollo Endosurgery’s OverStitch device

Apollo Endosurgery (NSDQ:APEN) has reported key data from 1,000 patients who underwent endoscopic gastroplasty using the company’s OverStitch device.

Published in the journal Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the data include a mean total weight loss of 14.8%±8.5% at 18 months. Three months following surgery, the impact on obesity-related comorbidities included the complete remission of:

• • 13 of 17 cases of type 2 diabetes.
  • All 28 cases of hypertension.
  • 18 of 32 cases of dyslipidemia.

Twenty-four patients were admitted to the hospital due to postoperative complaints. No patient required an emergency intervention and there were no mortalities, according to the company. The procedures took place at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Endoscopic gastroplasty is a minimally invasive weight-loss procedure based on full-thickness endoscopic suturing using Apollo’s OverStitch device. In the procedure, a surgeon places a series of sutures through the gastric wall, reducing the stomach volume by 80% by creating a restrictive endoscopic sleeve. The result allows a patient to consume less food and remain satiated longer.

“Our experience has been that patients find the ESG procedure very appealing, and for our practice, it is now an established option for our patients,” said director of obesity chair at King Saud University Aayed AlQahtani, M.D., in a prepared statement. “We confirmed that ESG is a safe, well-tolerated, and effective procedure. In addition, we also achieved 64.7% excess weight loss at 18 months follow-up, which is comparable to results achieved with other surgical bariatric interventions.”