Basis of Presentation and Liquidity	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2011
Basis of Presentation and Liquidity [Abstract]
BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND LIQUIDITY	NOTE 1—BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND LIQUIDITY SafeStitch Medical, Inc. (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, “SafeStitch” or the “Company”) is a developmental stage medical device company focused on the development of medical devices that manipulate tissues for endoscopic and minimally invasive surgery for the treatment of obesity, gastroesophageal reflux disease (“GERD”), Barrett’s Esophagus, esophageal obstructions, upper gastrointestinal bleeding, hernia formation and other intraperitoneal abnormalities. Cellular Technical Services Company, Inc. (“Cellular”), a non-operating public company, was incorporated in 1988 as NCS Ventures Corp. under the laws of the State of Delaware. On July 25, 2007, Cellular entered into a Share Transfer, Exchange and Contribution Agreement (the “Share Exchange”) with SafeStitch LLC, a Virginia limited liability company. On September 4, 2007, Cellular acquired all of the members’ equity interests in SafeStitch LLC in exchange for 11,256,369 shares of Cellular’s common stock, which represented a majority of Cellular’s outstanding shares immediately following the Share Exchange. Effective January 8, 2008, Cellular changed its name to SafeStitch Medical, Inc. and increased the aggregate number of shares of capital stock that may be issued from 35,000,000 to 250,000,000, comprising 225,000,000 shares of common stock, par value $0.001 per share (the “Common Stock”), and 25,000,000 shares of preferred stock, par value $0.01 per share. For accounting purposes, the acquisition has been treated as a recapitalization of SafeStitch LLC, with SafeStitch LLC as the acquirer (reverse acquisition). The historical financial statements prior to September 4, 2007 are those of SafeStitch LLC, which began operations on September 15, 2005. The accompanying financial statements give retroactive effect to the recapitalization as if it had occurred on September 15, 2005 (inception). The accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern. For the period from September 15, 2005 (inception) through December 31, 2011, the Company has accumulated a deficit of $22.8 million, including a net loss of $5.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, and has not generated revenue or positive cash flows from operations. The Company has been dependent upon equity financing and loans from stockholders to meet its obligations and sustain operations. The Company’s efforts have been principally devoted to developing its technologies and commercializing its products. Based upon its current cash position, the $8.3 million in proceeds received from the issuance of shares of common stock in February 2012 (see Note 14), availability under the extended term of its $4.0 million line of credit from The Frost Group LLC (“The Frost Group”) and the Company’s President and CEO, Jeffrey G. Spragens (the “Credit Facility”), and by monitoring its discretionary expenditures, management believes that the Company will be able to fund its existing operations through December 31, 2012. However, in order to fund all planned operations, including the commercialization of certain of the Company’s products, including the AMID Stapler^®, and the anticipated expansion in 2012 of clinical trials for certain of the Company’s product candidates, the Company anticipates that additional external financing will be required. If adequate funds are not available, the Company may be required to delay, reduce the scope of or eliminate its research and development programs, reduce its planned commercialization efforts or obtain funds through arrangements with collaborators or others that may require the Company to relinquish rights to certain product candidates that it might otherwise seek to develop or commercialize independently. Although the Company plans to secure additional funds through the issuance of equity and/or debt, no assurance can be given that additional financing will be available to the Company on acceptable terms, or at all. The Company’s ability to continue as a going concern is ultimately dependent upon generating revenues from those products that do not require further marketing clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”), obtaining FDA clearance to market its other product candidates, and achieving profitable operations and generating sufficient cash flows from operations to meet future obligations.

Basis of Presentation and Liquidity

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Basis of Presentation and Liquidity [Abstract]

NOTE 1—BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND LIQUIDITY

SafeStitch Medical, Inc. (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, “SafeStitch” or the “Company”) is a developmental stage medical device company focused on the development of medical devices that manipulate tissues for endoscopic and minimally invasive surgery for the treatment of obesity, gastroesophageal reflux disease (“GERD”), Barrett’s Esophagus, esophageal obstructions, upper gastrointestinal bleeding, hernia formation and other intraperitoneal abnormalities.

Cellular Technical Services Company, Inc. (“Cellular”), a non-operating public company, was incorporated in 1988 as NCS Ventures Corp. under the laws of the State of Delaware. On July 25, 2007, Cellular entered into a Share Transfer, Exchange and Contribution Agreement (the “Share Exchange”) with SafeStitch LLC, a Virginia limited liability company. On September 4, 2007, Cellular acquired all of the members’ equity interests in SafeStitch LLC in exchange for 11,256,369 shares of Cellular’s common stock, which represented a majority of Cellular’s outstanding shares immediately following the Share Exchange. Effective January 8, 2008, Cellular changed its name to SafeStitch Medical, Inc. and increased the aggregate number of shares of capital stock that may be issued from 35,000,000 to 250,000,000, comprising 225,000,000 shares of common stock, par value $0.001 per share (the “Common Stock”), and 25,000,000 shares of preferred stock, par value $0.01 per share. For accounting purposes, the acquisition has been treated as a recapitalization of SafeStitch LLC, with SafeStitch LLC as the acquirer (reverse acquisition). The historical financial statements prior to September 4, 2007 are those of SafeStitch LLC, which began operations on September 15, 2005. The accompanying financial statements give retroactive effect to the recapitalization as if it had occurred on September 15, 2005 (inception).

The accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern. For the period from September 15, 2005 (inception) through December 31, 2011, the Company has accumulated a deficit of $22.8 million, including a net loss of $5.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, and has not generated revenue or positive cash flows from operations. The Company has been dependent upon equity financing and loans from stockholders to meet its obligations and sustain operations. The Company’s efforts have been principally devoted to developing its technologies and commercializing its products. Based upon its current cash position, the $8.3 million in proceeds received from the issuance of shares of common stock in February 2012 (see Note 14), availability under the extended term of its $4.0 million line of credit from The Frost Group LLC (“The Frost Group”) and the Company’s President and CEO, Jeffrey G. Spragens (the “Credit Facility”), and by monitoring its discretionary expenditures, management believes that the Company will be able to fund its existing operations through December 31, 2012. However, in order to fund all planned operations, including the commercialization of certain of the Company’s products, including the AMID Stapler^®, and the anticipated expansion in 2012 of clinical trials for certain of the Company’s product candidates, the Company anticipates that additional external financing will be required. If adequate funds are not available, the Company may be required to delay, reduce the scope of or eliminate its research and development programs, reduce its planned commercialization efforts or obtain funds through arrangements with collaborators or others that may require the Company to relinquish rights to certain product candidates that it might otherwise seek to develop or commercialize independently. Although the Company plans to secure additional funds through the issuance of equity and/or debt, no assurance can be given that additional financing will be available to the Company on acceptable terms, or at all. The Company’s ability to continue as a going concern is ultimately dependent upon generating revenues from those products that do not require further marketing clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”), obtaining FDA clearance to market its other product candidates, and achieving profitable operations and generating sufficient cash flows from operations to meet future obligations.

- Definition

The entire disclosure for the organization, consolidation and basis of presentation of financial statements disclosure, and significant accounting policies of the reporting entity. May be provided in more than one note to the financial statements, as long as users are provided with an understanding of (1) the significant judgments and assumptions made by an enterprise in determining whether it must consolidate a VIE and/or disclose information about its involvement with a VIE, (2) the nature of restrictions on a consolidated VIE's assets reported by an enterprise in its statement of financial position, including the carrying amounts of such assets, (3) the nature of, and changes in, the risks associated with an enterprise's involvement with the VIE, and (4) how an enterprise's involvement with the VIE affects the enterprise's financial position, financial performance, and cash flows. Describes procedure if disclosures are provided in more than one note to the financial statements.

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