Vista Medical Release: Vista Medical Announces Effectiveness Of S-3 Resale Registration Statement

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Vista Medical Technologies, Inc. today announced that a registration statement on Form S-3 relating to the potential resale by selling stockholders of up to 10,573,497 shares of Vista Medical Common Stock has been declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Of the 10,573,497 shares, 5,893,544 shares are held by Vista Medical stockholders, 3,764,953 shares are issuable to Vista Medical stockholders upon the exercise of currently outstanding warrants, and 915,000 shares are issuable to Vista Medical stockholders upon conversion of outstanding shares of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock. All such shares have been registered for resale by the selling stockholders, and none of such shares will be sold by Vista Medical. The shares may be sold by the selling stockholders at prevailing market prices, in negotiated transactions, or through brokers or dealers.

The registration statement relating to the resale of these securities was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 13, 2004, and a final prospectus has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.

Vista Medical Technologies, Inc.

Our business is focused exclusively on the disease state management of morbid obesity, through our wholly-owned subsidiary, VOW Solutions, Inc. We provide program management, operational consulting and clinical training services to physicians and hospitals involved in the medical and surgical treatment of morbidly obese patients. We also provide specialized vitamins to patients who have undergone obesity surgery. Our corporate website is http://www.vistamt.com/; our morbid obesity disease state management website is http://www.vowsolutionsinc.com/; information on our nutritional supplements for post-surgical gastric bypass patients may be found on http://www.vistavitamins.com/. Vista Medical Technologies is traded on the Nasdaq SmallCap Market under the stock symbol VMTI.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

This news release may contain forward-looking statements concerning the business and products of Vista Medical. Actual results may differ materially depending on a number of risk factors, including, but not limited to the following: our efforts to maintain compliance with the continued listing requirements of the Nasdaq SmallCap Market; our ability to raise additional capital to fund our operations and execute our business plan; our ability to penetrate the market for obesity surgery management services; and customer acceptance of our products and services. Other risks inherent in our business are described in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K/A for the year ended December 31, 2003 and our most recent quarterly report on form 10-Q. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AT VISTA MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES: John R. Lyon President jlyon@vistamt.com (760) 603-9120 AT FINANCIAL RELATIONS BOARD: Tony Rossi Investor and Media Contact trossi@financialrelationsboard.com (310) 407-6563

Vista Medical Technologies, Inc.

CONTACT: John R. Lyon, President of Vista Medical Technologies,+1-760-603-9120, jlyon@vistamt.com; or investors and media, Tony Rossi ofFinancial Relations Board, +1-310-407-6563,trossi@financialrelationsboard.com, for Vista Medical Technologies