Stomach stapler for the obese gets $30 million

Toga...toga.

If you hear someone chanting that in a hospital, they probably aren't repeating dialogue from Animal House. They are asking for the latest in obesity technology.

Satiety, which has created the TOGa procedure for stapling a stomach without surgery, has raised $30 million in a fourth round of funding. Investors included Skyline Ventures, HLM Venture Partners and Venrock.

"We have been watching the obesity device space for a number of years and finally found an investment that we found compelling," said John Freund of Skyline in a prepared statement.

The TOGa procedure is intended to be far less invasive than current techniques for stomach stapling, which help curb appetites by reducing the size of a person's stomach. With TOGa, a device is slipped down a patient's throat, thereby reducing the recovery time and potential for complications. Surveys show that surgery prompts many patients to decline to undergo full treatment.

Approximately 22 million adults in the U.S. are considered morbidly obese, according to Satiety, and another 50 million are obese, making obesity a major health concern.

TOGa is in the investigation stage and hasn't been approved yet for actual use yet.

[Bronzit]

Badly written piece?

1 of the 1st things I learned in report writing was, NEVER use an abbreviation w/o 1st defining it! Where did Michael define what TOGa means?

[Davross]

Overly Nitpicking?

After the first mention of TOGa it says that it's a stomach stapling procedure that does not require surgery. That the writer didn't include Transoral Gastroplasty to directly define the acronym is more a technicality than not and knowing those words alone do not tell the reader what it means.

[Eugenian]

NEVER use an abbreviation...

>>NEVER use an abbreviation w/o 1st defining it!<<

Do you mean an abbreviation such as "w/o" or an abbreviation such as "1st" or what?

[Stating]

Not Eating Costs $0

Let's see, we can spend $30 million of your tax/insurance dollars to treat something that could be stopped by not eating, at a cost of $0. Yup, this is why we are a nation in decline.

[Tom CyBold]

It's an addiction

Stop trying to hold people responsible for what is beyond their control. Like every other behavior nowadays, obesity is based on a food addiction that the sufferer has no control over. Only massive federal research $$$ can head off this epidemic.

I'm being sarcastic. You're right: Individual responsiblity is out of style. America is on the decline.