A doctor administers the powder in short bursts, using the pump
that's attached to a thin catheter that's fed through the endoscope's
channel.
"Sometimes the bleeding comes so fast, you can't even see where it's
coming from," says Dr. Hlivko, adding that the hemostatic powder can
be invaluable when it's difficult to clip closed a bleeding ulcer on the
walls of the curved areas in the stomach.
The spray isn't yet available in the United States — although prod-
ucts like Hemospray by Cook Medical are sold almost everywhere
else — but that could change soon, says Dr. Gross. The FDA has
recently approved spray coagulation powders, including Hemoblast
Bellows by Biom'Up, for use during non-endoscopic procedures.
2. Less-invasive weight loss
Patients who are looking to undergo serious weight-loss procedures
have traditionally turned to bariatric surgery, but its nature as an inva-
sive procedure can come with its own host of negative side effects. A
retrospective study that examined almost 700 gastric bypass patients
between the summer of 2013 and fall of 2014 found that 24% suffered
post-op complications that required hospital readmission, with many
patients needing a cholecystectomy.
That's where endoscopy steps in. Endoscopy-assisted procedures
and devices offer less invasive methods of weight loss therapy, and
they're becoming more popular. "Endoscopic weight loss options will
likely continue to grow," says Dr. Hlivko, adding that doctors are seek-
ing alternatives to traditional weight-loss surgery. A few examples:
• Single gastric balloon. The gastric balloon is an increasingly pop-
ular endoscopic weight-loss device that bypasses the need for surgery.
The balloon is inserted via endoscope and inflated in the patient's
stomach. "The entire apparatus is pure upper GI," says Subha
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