Introduction of an endoscopic suturing system from animal study to the clinical setting in Japan

Endoscopic suturing devices have developed and are available in daily practice in Western countries. The devices are applied to various treatments, including fistula closure, defect closure after endoscopic resection, endoscopic full-thickness resection (EFTR), and bariatric surgery. Those devices don't have pharmaceutical approval in Japan right now, even though we can obtain a great benefit from the suturing device.
We started to use the suturing device from an animal study to show the effectiveness. In the animal study, we applied the suturing device to defect closure in the stomach, and we achieved the rate of closure 88.2% after ESD and EFTR. From the experience and results of the animal study, we decided to apply it in a clinical setting. First, we used the device for defect closure after ESD. We achieved the success rate of defect closure, both 100% in the stomach (7/7) and rectum (3/3). Recently, we performed endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG) for obese patients with the suturing device in 2020.
I want to present our experiences and advantages of the suturing device in this session. We believe the suturing device can overcome the difficulty that can't be resolved by conventional endoscopic devices, and we can also develop a new minimally invasive treatment. We hope the suturing device is available in Japan shortly.