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Leonardo Claros, MD, FACS, he or she has a BMI of between 18.5 and vomiting for up to a week afterward —
FASMBS and St. Luke’s chief, 24.9. A person is considered overweight which can be controlled by medication —
Bariatric section director. with a BMI of 25 to 29.9 and obese with as the patient’s body adjusts to the balloons.
a BMI of 30 or higher.
Maher El Chaar, MD, FACS, FASMBS According to the U.S. Food and Drug
and St. Luke’s Bariatric Surgery’s “The purpose of doing this is for Administration, the dual balloon system
co-medical director. people to see a significant improvement consists of two attached balloons that
Courtesy of St. Luke’s University Health Network in medical conditions,” said Maher El are placed into the stomach through
Chaar, MD, FACS, FASMBS, St. Luke’s the mouth in an endoscopic procedure
co-medical director Bariatric Surgery while the patient is mildly sedated. Once
Program co-medical director. Losing in place, the balloons are filled with
weight can help or even reverse other saline solution and a blue dye. If one
medical conditions like hypertension. of the balloons should break, the dye
“These procedures are not magic will appear in the patient’s urine. The
bullets. They are tools to help people.” balloons can be left in place up to six
months before removal.
However, even with utilizing
procedures like the gastric balloons, The FDA said that during the clinical
the patient has to be committed to a study, patients with the balloons lost an
lifestyle change. average of 14.3 pounds, while those who
didn’t have the system lost an average of
“This is a lifetime commitment,” 7.2 pounds. All of the study participants
El Chaar said. “You have to put received diet and exercise counseling.
some effort into it to make sure you
maintain that weight loss long term … Weight-loss patients have been using
The patient has to buy into a whole gastric balloons to successfully lose
new lifestyle.” weight in Europe and Australia for more
than 10 years, according to Claros.
That’s why each procedure is part of
a comprehensive program that includes “The balloon is not supposed to
nutrition counseling, diet and exercise replace bariatric surgery, but is another
support. Patients are counseled before tool to help lose weight,” he said. St.
the procedure and up to a year afterward. Luke’s chose to use the ReShape Dual
Balloon System because it’s safer than
The outpatient procedure to insert the single balloon in that if one of the
the balloons has downtime of just a day balloons should rupture, the other
and there’s no incision, said El Chaar. balloon will anchor it, instead of the
Potential side effects include nausea and stomach trying to push the deflated
balloon into the intestine.
People with a BMI of between 30 and
40 may not see themselves as obese,
even though they would be technically
classified in the mild to moderately
obese category.
“If they have been struggling with
trying to lose weight, the balloon might
be something for them,” Claros said.
“There’s no surgery, they can go home
the same day. It’s something they can
look at and they can discuss with us.”
Illustrated to the left is the ReShape
Integrated Dual Balloon System,
a new weight loss procedure
performed at St. Luke’s University
Health Network.
Courtesy of St. Luke’s University Health Network
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