The anti-Stretta conspiracy

I can not find any indication that any facilities are still conducting this procedure. Any info I have found online says the company has shut down...can you supply any other info or links...

I have had daily GERD (burning in my chest and throat) for 2 yrs, despite having tried 5 different PPI's.  I currently take Nexium but it does nothing for the LPR. 

I was thinking of having the Stretta and asked my Dr (GI doc in NJ).  He said that Curon, the manufacturer, had gone out of business.  He also said that there was a lawsuit due to a few patients experiencing burning of their esophagus during the radio frquency ablation procedure.  This has scared me off. 

From what I found, Curon Medical, the maker of the Stretts device, has gone out of business.  The Stretta procudure is therefore at this point not available.  If a new company begins to manufacturing the Stretta device, we will again be able to offer it to our patients. ~ Mark Fusco MD./Florida.

This article was not dated so I cannot confirm this was recently posted.

Good Luck to all of you.

Kindly,

Kitt

Thanks Jasmine !  You are very kind for posting this info.

Kitt

Good Morning ,

The forums are intended for offering mutual personal support.  Debating controversial subjects should be taken elsewhere. I thank you in advance for your understanding of this forum rule.

Kindly,

Kitt

The nissen is when the take to top of your stomach (the fundus) and wrap it around your esophagus (hot dog bun like, or wrapped around like a pant's leg around the ankle) This is done laproscopically through the abdominal wall,

The Esophyx procedure is where they enter the throat and using something like a stapler they pinch up the stomach to the esophagus and staple it together.

I'm not familar with the Stretta procedure. Maybe someone else here can tell you this one.

One more note on stretta that I never knew until I went to the doctor. I couldn't find it when I researched the web site when deciding on it. But the real purpose of the radio frequency is not to produce collagen. The "barrier effect" is only temporary. The purpose is to destroy nerves that cause transient lower esophageal relaxations TLESR this is called the "neurolysis effect" and that is why it takes so long to work. 6 months to a year for the full effect. I would like to be patient, but my asthma is too bad so I need to move forward with a wrap, but which one? Hope this helps. If I wasn't allergic to ppis I'd definitely give it a full year before giving up.

I have recently come upon this discussion board, and wanted to bring things up to date for everyone and answer a few questions. With regard to the Stretta procedure, although the original company Curon did go out of business, beginning in 2010, the new company called Mederi, brought the product back out on the marketplace with substantial revisions and safety features as well as standardization of the protocol. Despite a 3 to 4 year hiatus when the product was off the market, research did continue and there have been a number of extremely positive publications including eight in 10 year data showing substantial improvement in patients after this procedure. More specifically between 72% and 86% of people between eight and 10 years are asymptomatic and still off medication.
An earlier post asked for the difference between a number of different technologies. Nissen fundoplication is where the fundus portion of the stomach is wrapped tightly around the esophagus, typically in a 360° fashion, which prevents reflux at least short term. Failure due to dilation of the surgically created rap caused by continual eating occurs often in approximately 25% of patients. Side effects include inability to burp, vomit, and excessive flatulence. The Esophyx procedure, was an ill-conceived and dangerous procedure which never should have entered into the marketplace. It involves the injection of a gel like substance into the muscle layer of the lower esophageal sphincter. Problems with delivering this accurately resulted in a number of deaths, as well as organ failure in many kidneys as well as lung segments. The deaths were due to bleeding from the aorta into the esophagus. Despite having been warned of this in advance, the manufacturer persisted with the market launch and within two years was forced to not only withdraw the product from the marketplace but pay millions and millions of dollars in damages to patients. The Stretta procedure is a procedure that stimulates the muscle of the lower esophageal sphincter to grow and therefore naturally prevents reflux by restoring the status of the sphincter muscle that is destroyed slowly over time by overeating and excessive ingestion of things that cause more reflux such as caffeine and alcohol.

The title of this discussion board suggests that there may be forces that are trying to discredit this particular procedure. Unfortunately, the relationship between industry and the academic medical community hides a very dark secret. Industry pays academic physicians to promote their products. This can be in the form of payment into research accounts but also takes the form of direct payments to those physicians. These physicians then feel the need to defend technology that they may themselves not believe in, and to try and discredit other technology that may actually be better for the patient. The case of the Esophyx is a perfect example of this, where many universities and academic physicians at those universities, received hundreds of thousands of dollars to perform these procedures and promote this product. The same physicians chose to attempt to discredit other procedures and technologies. Why? Simply because they were being paid by a different technology. Despite attempts to try and draw attention to these issues, there is a regular failure of physicians and universities to publicly disclose the money that they receive from industry so that patients may be able to truly judge prejudice and accuracy. The Sunshine Act is an initial attempt by the government to try and bring sunshine into this process, but itself is inadequate and extremely difficult to research within the site.

Hi

I came across this post but also a lot of posts in which people reported zero benefit (even after one year) and actually worsening of the reflux...even complications and nerve damage.

Im seeing a gastro next week who is against this procedure. I have no arguments to defend myself but really want this to work and fix my LPR...