If you often have heartburn or indigestion you may be diagnosed with called gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD. Medication can relieve the symptoms, but now a simple procedure may cure it.
Thirty-one-year-old Rob Hipp enjoys jalapenos, something he could never eat, until now.
Rob says, “basically, I was told you are going to be on medication the rest of your life.”
A new procedure may have ended Rob’s chest pains and indigestion. A doctor placed a magnetic titanium bracelet around the low end of Rob’s esophagus. It helps a weak sphincter keep stomach acid in the stomach, where it belongs, and out of the esophagus.
Dr. Tripp Buckley, Surgical Director of the Heartburn and Acid Reflux Center in Dallas says, “so that when you are eating, your food is able to go through no problem like a normal sphincter, and then it snaps back shut so you are not able to reflux.”
At Blair Gastroenterological Associates in Altoona, Dr. Ralph McKibbin calls it a definite advance in the care of GERD. “The good news is this is a less invasive simpler procedure and it has very good results,” he says.
GERD costs Americans 30 billion dollars a year, in antacid medicine, treatments and lost productivity. “So we’re treating symptoms with the drugs rather than treating the actual problem, and it definitely does not stop progression of disease,” Dr. Buckley explained.
Dr McKibbin says the Linx System should help patients who see no improvement with medication or those don’t want to be dependent on it, but it won’t work for patients with a large hiatal hernia. The procedure isn’t available yet at Blair Gastro, and is mainly performed in large medical centers.
“This reflux procedure is definitely shown to work, it’s found to be safe, but with any new procedure we like to follow it for several years to make sure there’s no surprise, but so far, so good,” Dr. McKibbin says.
Dr. Buckley says, “we’ve improved the quality of life for these patients; given them back the ability to eat normally.”
For Rob, that means as many hot peppers as he wants.
Dr McKibbin expects the Linx System to make its way out to the community in the next several years, but he believes it’s the first of many less invasive procedures in the pipeline.
