A surgeon’s tips for your Enterra® Therapy consult
San Antonio’s Dr. Kent Van Sickle shares his perspective on what you can expect from your Enterra Therapy surgical consultation
Since the early 2000s, Dr. Kent Van Sickle has implanted Enterra Therapy to treat his gastroparesis patients. Here, he answers common questions you may have before a surgical consultation with an Enterra Therapy surgeon.
1. What happens during the consultation?
If you’re in-person, you should expect that a physical exam will be conducted. But in all cases, you’ll review your full health history, including any past gastrointestinal imaging you’ve had.
I typically talk more about Enterra Therapy itself and what a patient can expect from the procedure. I often show patients a video that demonstrates the procedure and how the device works.
2. How does Enterra Therapy work?
I get this question a lot! Many patients have heard Enterra Therapy described as a “gastric pacemaker,” but that’s not really accurate. Instead of “pacing” the stomach to help it empty, Enterra Therapy is a neurostimulator. This means that the device works by sending electrical impulses to the stomach to help relieve nausea and vomiting symptoms feeling nauseous. The impulses come from a generator or battery that’s about the size of a coin purse, and they go through a pair of leads, or wires, that send the signal to the stomach.
3. What happens during the implant procedure?
Compared to many kinds of surgery, the Enterra Therapy implantation procedure is pretty straightforward. I place the generator beneath the skin and fatty tissue of the abdomen and attach the device’s leads to the stomach wall. Most patients go home the next day.
4. Are any diagnostics needed before I can be cleared for surgery?
Yes. I recommend that all of my Enterra Therapy candidates have an upper endoscopy and a 4-hour gastric emptying scintigraphy test. These two diagnostics are critical in ruling out other conditions, and in ensuring a patient has been properly diagnosed with gastroparesis.
Don’t worry if you don’t have those before your consultation—your surgeon can order them for you.
If you’ve already had both of those procedures done in the last 12-24 months, you likely will not need to repeat them.
5. What happens after the consultation?
Once your diagnostic exams have been completed to your surgeon’s satisfaction, and your insurance coverage is squared away, you’ll be scheduled for surgery.
About Dr. Van Sickle
Dr. Kent Van Sickle received his medical degree from the University of Tennessee in 1994 and completed his surgical residency training at Georgia Baptist Medical Center in Atlanta, GA and New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, NC. He went into private practice in general surgery for four years in Anderson, SC before returning to academics in 2003 to complete a two-year fellowship in Advanced Laparoscopy and GI Surgery at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, GA. Dr. Van Sickle joined the faculty at UT Health San Antonio in September 2005 and is a Professor of Surgery in the Division of General and Minimally Invasive Surgery and Director of the Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) Fellowship. Dr. Van Sickle has consistently been selected as one of San Antonio’s best surgeons by his peers and by his patients.
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IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION
Enterra Therapy for treatment of chronic, resistant to medication nausea and vomiting associated with gastroparesis caused by diabetes or an unknown origin in patients aged 18 to 70 years: patients should always discuss potential risks and benefits of the device with their physician.
*HUMANITARIAN DEVICE
Authorized by Federal law for use in the treatment of chronic intractable (drug refractory) nausea and vomiting secondary to gastroparesis of diabetic or idiopathic etiology in patients aged 18 to 70 years. The effectiveness of this device for this use has not been demonstrated. What does this mean?