Surgical instruments and techniques for treating gastro-esophageal reflux disease
Instruments for thermally-mediated treatment of a patient's lower esophageal sphincter (LES) to induce an injury healing response to thereby populate the extracellular compartment of walls of the LES with collagen matrices to altere the biomechanics of the LES to provide an increased intra-esophageal pressure for preventing acid reflux. A preferred embodiment is a bougie-type device for trans-esophageal introduction that carries conductive electrodes for delivering Rf energy to walls of the LES (i) to induce the injury healing response or (ii) to “model” collagenous tissues of the LES by shrinking collagen fibers therein.
1 . A method to treat tissue in a selected wall region of an esophagus comprising the steps of
introducing an elongate member into the esophagus, the elongate member comprising at least one electrode operatively coupled to a source of radiofrequency energy and an inflatable body carried by the elongate member free of physical or electrical contact with the electrode;
inflating the body to stabilize the electrode in physical and electrical contact with the selected wall region, while keeping the body free of physical or electrical contact with electrode; and
delivering radiofrequency energy to the electrode to treat tissue in the selected wall region.