In 1999, the Bioenterics-Orbera Intragastric Balloon (BIB) was presented, which according to the Spanish Society of Digestive Endoscopy, SEED, (www.wseed.org), is the most popular and used balloon since then and until today.
It is a spherical silicone balloon, very resistant to gastric acids, with a smooth surface and lasting six months, which is filled with 500-700 milliliters of dyed isotonic saline solution and has a self-sealing valve detectable using simple radiological techniques, according to reports the Spanish Consensus Document on Bariatric Endoscopy, from the SEED, in 2017.
The first intragastric balloon was a device that was used for the first time in 1985, although it had excessive side effects and complications. Later, other models emerged, with similar results and that were not satisfactorily marketed either, according to the medical website Endoscopy of Obesity, EdlO (https://endoscopiadelaobesidad.com).
This led to an international conference in 1987 to establish recommendations to improve the safety and effectiveness of the ball, according to EdlO, of the Quirón Salud group.
As a result, at the end of the 1990s, the Bioenterics® intragastric balloon appeared (successively marketed by Allergan®, Orbera® and Apollo®), remaining the reference balloon ever since,” according to this same source.
The intragastric balloon (IB) is made of medical silicone, a very flexible and highly resistant material, which is introduced into the stomach through the mouth through an endoscopy (introduction of a tube or endoscope into the body through a natural orifice), according to the European Medical Institute of Obesity (IMEO), pioneer of the application of this system.
MILESTONE IN WEIGHT LOSS.
Subsequently, it is filled with a saline solution (liquid composed of water and salts), occupying two thirds of the stomach, producing a feeling of satiety and “being full”, which makes it easier to follow a weight loss plan, they add from this institute ( www.imeoobesidad.com).
They explain that BI helps the patient, first of all, by providing essential support to lose the first 10 to 15 kilos in two or three months.
Secondly, especially when the model is implemented that remains in the stomach for a year and is accompanied by a maintenance and nutritional monitoring plan, BI promotes nutritional re-education and promotes a healthier and more active lifestyle in the long term. term, according to Rubén Bravo, nutrition expert and spokesperson for the institute.
“It is a simple intervention that is especially suitable for people who are reluctant to undergo surgery and that, in addition to facilitating short-term weight loss, helps reduce anxiety and compulsive behaviors, and control and prevent ailments such as hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, fatty liver or polycystic ovary syndrome,” explains Bravo.
The procedure is performed, in a hospital setting and under sedation, by a specialist in digestive endoscopy and lasts about 30 minutes. Before implanting the balloon, a control endoscopy is performed to evaluate the health of the stomach, he points out.
“This treatment, which reduces intake and creates a feeling of satiety, offers help that allows achieving relatively rapid weight loss, which is why it is in high demand,” the IMEO explains.
At certain times, such as the beginning of the year, the beginning of the summer period or returning to work after vacations, treatments contracted in centers specialized in weight loss increase, according to this institute.
According to this same source, “the majority of patients who come to these centers to lose weight meet the requirements to undergo bariatric surgery,” a set of surgical techniques intended to treat morbid obesity, which include reducing gastric capacity, limiting food intake and/or modify intestinal absorption of nutrients.
ALTERNATIVE TO SURGERY.
However, many of these patients prefer to resort to less invasive alternatives, that is, they do not require cuts and incisions or inserting surgical instruments into the body, and they include nutritional monitoring and offer results similar to those of bariatric methods, they add. .
Certain treatments “such as the intragastric balloon, enable relatively rapid weight loss, comparable to wearing an average of three sizes smaller in a couple of months,” explains Bravo.
Conventional sizes or measurements of clothing items usually vary 4 or 5 centimeters from one to another, in parts of the body such as the chest or hip, which entails a difference of about 4 to 5 kilos in weight, as explained by the IMEO. .
Nutritional monitoring after the implementation of the BIG is an ally to not regain the lost weight, which makes this system an option that is usually chosen by those people who cannot get rid of their extra kilos by following a diet plan combined with exercise. , adds Bravo.
However, he advises against resorting to this treatment as a solution to “lose weight quickly and effortlessly” after gaining weight at certain times of the year.
“The intragastric balloon should be prescribed as an opportunity to regain healthy weight and improve lifestyle, which requires nutritional and sometimes psychological monitoring throughout the process,” he emphasizes.
This procedure is recommended, due to its effectiveness, to people who have always been slightly overweight (5 to 10 kilos) and have become moderately obese (15 to 30 kilos of excess weight), as a result of pregnancy, menopause, a period of depression or anxiety, or an injury or surgery that reduces your activity and caloric expenditure,” says Bravo.
“The intragastric balloon (IB) marked a before and after in weight loss treatments,” says Carmen Arribas, technical and care director of the European Medical Institute of Obesity (IMEO), a Spanish center that implanted its first device of this type in a patient, in 2001.
Arribas points out that the balloon “was a milestone” because it allowed people to lose weight in a simple way, “taking away the person’s hunger, by keeping their stomach occupied.”
Before the arrival of this system, different types of surgery were used to treat morbid obesity, but their results were not effective in the long term, he adds.
Arribas recalls that the first BI model remained in the stomach for 6 months and was filled with blue-dyed serum, in order to detect that color in the patient’s urine, which indicated that the implanted balloon had to be replaced with another.
Once the BI was removed, at the end of the treatment, the person had to undergo close dietary monitoring to not regain the lost weight, a practice that remains essential for the success of the treatment, as he emphasizes.
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