Monday, April 26, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

New surgery easy to swallow for acid reflux disease sufferers

Procedure performed locally at Spring Valley Hospital

Deborah Viergutz on Wednesday underwent a first-of-its-kind in Las Vegas procedure called Enteryx at Spring Valley Hospital. The procedure is intended to treat acid reflux disease. On the monitor in the upper right corner is the inside of her esophagus. Photo by Gary Thompson.

To call what Deborah Viergutz suffered from for the past four years "heartburn" is to discount how seriously it disrupted her life.

"It's really a lot more painful than people think," she said last week as she was about to be wheeled into an operating room for a groundbreaking new kind of surgery.

She could not eat the foods she liked, was in near-constant pain, and often was unable to sleep through the night, she said.

Viergutz, 52, suffered from acid reflux disease, which means the acid from her stomach was getting into her throat because her body wasn't working the way it's supposed to.

But now, thanks to the new surgery that's just now been made available to Southern Nevadans, Viergutz probably will suffer no more.

"There are so many patients around here who could benefit from this," said Karla Perez, CEO and managing director of Spring Valley Hospital, where Viergutz on Wednesday was the first patient to undergo a procedure called Enteryx. Spring Valley is the only local hospital to perform the procedure.

About 20 million Americans suffer daily from acid reflux disease, commonly called heartburn because severe symptoms can mimic a heart attack, according to the American Gastroenterological Association.

Enteryx involves the injection of a polymer into the throat's sphincter muscle, which is usually weak in people with acid reflux disease. The weak muscle doesn't close the way it's supposed to after food passes through the esophagus on its way to the stomach, so acid sometimes backs up into the throat.

The polymer becomes like a sponge but is still somewhat rigid and should make the muscle stronger, said Dr. Vish Sharma, chairman of the Internal Medicine Department at Spring Valley and the man who performed the minor surgery on Viergutz.

Symptoms of acid reflux can include a burning sensation in the throat, particularly after spicy or fried foods.

That was a serious problem for Viergutz, she said.

"I love Mexican and Italian food," she said.

The procedure was developed a few years ago by a couple of entrepreneurial doctors who thought the polymer might work in the throat. It had been used in brain surgery for years.

Kevin Mancini, of Boston Scientific, the company that acquired the Enteryx technology, said tests show about 80 percent of patients can stop taking medications for heartburn after the procedure.

He said about 500 to 600 doctors nationwide have been trained on how to perform the procedure, and it's been done about 1,300 times worldwide.

Nevada was the 43rd state in which it was performed.

Sharma, the surgeon, said he expects to perform it three or four times a month at Spring Valley.

Viergutz said she used to take lots of over-the-counter products like Pepto Bismol and Rolaids. When a new line of heartburn medications came out a couple of years ago, she took Nexium daily. She recently had to double her dosage, she said.

The Enteryx procedure on Viergutz took about a half-hour, and she went home later that evening.

On Friday, she said she was still in a little pain but was looking forward to soon eating some of her favorite foods. The first thing she wanted to do when she started feeling better, she said, was "probably go to Olive Garden."