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Tortured by acid reflux? Now a tiny 'cube' could banish the problem for ever, as one patient tells us: 'I finally feel normal again!' By ADRIAN MONTI Published: 19:40 EDT, 28 April 2025 | Updated: 19:41 EDT, 28 April 2025 e-mail View comments Around one in five adults has severe acid reflux, causing heartburn, chest pain and food getting stuck in their throat. Phillip Perkins, 53, a mental health adviser from Pimlico, London , was among the first in the UK to be given a new implant for it, as he tells Adrian Monti. The patient As I reached my 50s, I started experiencing extreme discomfort and pain in my chest whenever I swallowed most solid foods.
Anything soft, such as mashed potato, was fine, but if I ate a sandwich or steak, for instance, it got stuck in my food pipe. It was excruciatingly painful and scary – I often felt like I might choke to death. I stopped sitting at the table at family mealtimes with my wife, Farida, and eight-year-old son as I couldn’t eat the ‘normal’ food they’d be enjoying.
But I assumed it was just indigestion. I had to change my diet, avoiding crusty bread, meat and anything that required lots of chewing. Instead, I mostly ate cottage pie, vegetable soup, ice cream and yoghurt drinks.
I also suffered heartburn and regurgitated my food, which left a nasty taste. I tried Gaviscon and Rennie, but nothing worked. Phillip Perkins, 53, a mental health adviser from Pimlico, London, was among the first in the UK to be given a new implant for acid reflux One in five adults has the condition, causing heartburn, chest pain and food getting stuck in their throat After two years of struggling with my symptoms I was finally prompted to see my GP in 2023 by a terrifying incident in an Indian restaurant.
A bit of naan got lodged in my food pipe and wouldn’t move, despite me drinking lots of water. I felt I was choking and struggled to breathe – it was really frightening. Luckily, with more water, it eventually dislodged.
The GP prescribed omeprazole (a drug that reduces stomach acid production) but it made little difference, so I was referred to hospital for a scan which showed the muscles surrounding my food pipe weren’t contracting properly to move the food towards the stomach. That’s why it was getting trapped. My consultant mentioned a new surgical technique, called RefluxStop – a cube-like implant stitched to the top of the stomach to stop acid flowing up into my food pipe.
Previously only used privately, it was about to be made available at some NHS hospitals but there would be an 18-month wait. I decided I had nothing to lose and so carried on living with my symptoms before the device was fitted last August. I stayed in hospital for two nights.
At first I was only allowed liquids but ate mashed food the next day. Initially swallowing was painful but that eased within a week and I immediately felt my heartburn had gone. Two weeks after surgery, Farida and I went out for our first proper meal together in more than a year.
I ordered a steak with baby potatoes – which I hadn’t dared eat before. I was scared food might get blocked but that’s never happened since and I have had no side-effects. Having this device has meant I can now eat whatever I want, enjoy meals with my family – and finally feel normal again.
The surgeon Naim Fakih Gomez is a bariatric and gastroenterology surgeon at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in London. Acid reflux is something we’ve all experienced at some point, but a severe form of this, gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD), affects around ten million people in the UK, sometimes for years, and can make life miserable. It’s caused when the oesophageal sphincter muscle, which acts as a valve between the lower oesophagus and the stomach, stops working properly so stomach acid leaks back up it.
Lifestyle changes – such as eating smaller, more frequent meals or avoiding triggers such as spicy foods – can help, as can over-the-counter or prescription medicines to reduce the production of stomach acid. Long term, GORD can cause a change of the contracting muscle movement inside the oesophagus. This is because being continuously irritated by stomach acid can numb the oesophagus, impairing its ability to easily move food along.
Some patients with acid reflux, like Phillip, might also have this difficulty swallowing. Traditional surgery for GORD is a keyhole procedure, where we completely or partially wrap the top part of the stomach around where it joins the oesophagus to make a new valve, as the existing one has become weak. This stops stomach acid from travelling up the food pipe.
It’s successful but does come with unpleasant potential side-effects, known as gas-bloat syndrome. With the stomach wrapped around the oesophagus, gas can become trapped – causing bloating, pain and swelling. Recent innovative devices to treat GORD include the LINX system, which creates a ‘valve’ consisting of a bracelet of magnetic beads placed around the oesophageal sphincter.
Read More Did sitting for too long cause drummer and son of Ringo Zak Starkey's life-threatening blood clot? Swallowing food temporarily pushes the beads apart, but the magnets then close up again to stop acid leaking back. But LINX is unsuitable for patients such as Phillip who have difficulty swallowing because their oesophagus doesn’t contract normally, so there’s a higher risk of pain and further problems swallowing. However, RefluxStop does not encircle the oesophagus and also reduces the risk of further difficulties in swallowing post-surgery.
Since last year it’s been available at three NHS hospitals: Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, St Mary’s Hospital in London, and University Hospital Southampton. A cube-shaped silicone device, smaller than a ping pong ball, is secured at the top of the stomach with about a dozen stitches. This device helps close the valve after food has passed down the oesophagus.
It pushes down the oesophageal sphincter, allowing it to function in the correct way to prevent stomach acid escaping. As it doesn’t compress the food pipe, it doesn’t cause the swallowing difficulties of traditional anti-reflux surgery. The device is inserted via five small incisions into the tummy, in a procedure lasting one to two hours.
Patients stick to a pureed or liquid diet for a couple of days, then build up to mashed food. We have fitted six devices since last September and, worldwide, only about 1,100 patients have had them implanted, meaning long-term data is limited. But the largest study we currently have, involving 47 patients who had the procedure four years ago, showed a 90 per cent reduction in GORD symptoms.
The study, published last August in journal Surgical Endoscopy, also found patients had an improved quality of life and no longer needed medication for it. Privately, RefluxStop costs from around £12,500. What are the risks? As with all surgery, a risk of bleeding, infection or failure.
There is currently limited data on its long-term benefits and possible complications. Marcus Reddy, a consultant upper gastrointestinal surgeon at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, says: ‘This device has the potential to help that niche of patients who are currently poorly served with limited options. ‘For them, this could be a real lifesaver – but it’s early days and we need to see its benefit over a longer period before we can offer it routinely.
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