Apollo Endosurgery Completes First-in-Human Cases with New OverStitch™ Endoscopic Suturing System
AUSTIN, TX – November 1, 2010 – Apollo Endosurgery, Inc. announced that their newly launched OverStitch™ Endoscopic Suturing System has recently been employed in several, first-in-human cases.
OverStitch Endoscopic Suturing System is a unique device that mimics the way physicians deploy sutures by hand. It provides full-thickness endoscopic suturing on a flexible platform, delivering surgical standard of care through the flexible endoscope.
OverStitch was first used by Dr. Santiago Horgan at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in a patient who had been suffering from multiple complications due to a gastric fistula, otherwise described as a “leak in the stomach”. The OverStitch Endoscopic Suturing System was deployed endoscopically to facilitate the closure of the fistula.
Dr. Christopher Gostout has since used the device at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN) to repair an esophageal fistula. The OverStitch Endoscopic Suturing System was utilized to place multiple sutures that effectively closed the fistula. Dr. Gostout was ecstatic and said “the device worked flawlessly in the esophageal environment”. He further said “The device will address a wide variety of previously unmet needs for tissue apposition throughout the GI tract”.
“The early reception of the OverStitch product has been exceptional; we are very excited to see our products providing clinicians the ability to offer less invasive endoscopic surgical treatment options” noted Lee Putman, Apollo Endosurgery Vice President of Sales & Marketing. “The OverStitch product provides Apollo an excellent opportunity to advance the potential of flexible surgery, while improving patient outcomes and lives”. Aiding this advancement, Apollo has created its Gemini (Gastrointestinal Endoscopic MINimally Invasive) Suturing Registry. The registry provides a tool whereby data can be collected and maintained from each case where the OverStitch product is employed.
About Apollo Endosurgery, Inc.
Apollo Endosurgery, Inc. is dedicated to revolutionizing patient care through the development of flexible surgery, which is emerging from the convergence of laparoscopic surgery and therapeutic gastroenterology. Flexible surgery minimizes the trauma of surgical access by taking advantage of natural orifices to deliver surgical tools to targeted areas. All of Apollo’s products are compatible with existing flexible endoscope platforms. Apollo Endosurgery was co-founded with the Apollo Group, a unique collaboration of physicians from the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins University, Medical University of South Carolina, the University of Texas Medical Branch and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The company is funded by PTV Sciences and H.I.G. Ventures.
For more information, visit our website (www.apolloendo.com)