EndoBarrier Therapy

jillc

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Claresholm, AB
My mother found this in our local paper today. I've transcribed the article about this experimental malabsorption therapy. I've also attached a link to the article in my shared Dropbox.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bzcaj01G7p_AVjFpYmszS3M4V3c&usp=sharing

Apologies for any typos:

Calgary Herald, Aug 28, 2014

“Doctors discuss procedure to ‘cure’ obesity”

Fears raised over possibility of vanity procedure

Charlie Fidelman – PostMedia News

Montreal – Would you have surgery to lose 35 pounds? What about a procedure that involves no incision and lets you have your cake and eat it, too?

Among the latest anti-obesity devices, under discussion at an international conference in Montreal, is an experimental method that France is currently testing as a national trial.

Unlike traditional weight-loss surgery, EndoBarrier Therapy is an incisionless procedure that can be done in an outpatient day clinic.

A thin plastic sleeve is passed through the mouth and installed in the upper part of the intestine, essentially creating a barrier in the bowel lining to food absorption. A barrier to nutrients means fewer calories and fewer calories means weight loss. There’s no requirement to diet. Patients can eat as usual and still lose weight.

The French minister of health last year approved a large, randomized trial costing about $1.6 million. The study will evaluate the cost and impact of the device against conventional treatment (dietary counseling, physical activity and lifestyle changes) on metabolic syndrome in obese patients with and without diabetes.

“It’s a 15 minute ‘cure’ for obesity said one physician in Britain after a preliminary trial with a handful of patients in 2000.


The danger of such hype is that people will want it for cosmetic reasons – a vanity procedure, said Michel Gagner, bariatric surgeon at Montreal’s Hôpital Sacré Coeur and president of the 19th world congress, International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity (IFSO) and metabolic disorders.

Bariatric surgery often is a last ditch resort for the morbidly obese. But it should be offered systematically to patients with the metabolic disorders, Gagner said.
 
If I remember correctly, it can't be left in for an extended period. At some point it has to come out. So, the benefits would be temporary at best.
 
And when they removed them, the found the lining of the intestine to be inflamed where the thing had been. So, temporary and causes inflammation. Unless it's some new miracle material, it doesn't sound so great to me. Gadgets and the intestines don't seem to be a good mix.
 

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