The intragastric balloon help you lose 40% more weight to those on a diet

* Spain is, together with Italy, a world leader in the implementation of this technique
* Patients have the ball in the body for seven months


Maybe it's because Spain holds the dubious top spot in the list of countries with more childhood obesity. Or that nearly one of every two adults is overweight. The fact is that our country leads the intragastric balloon treatment to lose kilos. According to a study by doctors Gontrand Lopez-Nava, head of the Department of Gastroenterology, University Hospital Madrid Sanchinarro and Alfredo Genco, professor of surgery at the University La Sapienza, Rome (Italy), this technique increases by 40% weight loss of obese people who are dieting.

"It's a good alternative for most patients and also for children. If the diet does not work, is the only tool we have for the childhood obesity and can prevent the boy from becoming a morbidly obese," explains Dr. Lopez-Nava, who explains that "in the case of children studied a lot of the individual circumstances of each. There is no fixed protocols. However, Genco added that the average age of the children we have placed the ball around 11 years.

Besides children, adults also undergo the procedure. Both those who are overweight (body mass index-measure obtained by dividing the height (cm) and weight-between 25 and 30), and the obese in varying degrees. In a study with 260 patients, those with the intragastric balloon and followed a balanced diet lost nearly six points of body mass index (BMI) in six months, while those who followed the diet only lost about three points. At 18 months, the effects of the ball were still better than the diet.

"As with diet, patients can get lost in this period between five and seven kilos, with the gastric balloon loss may reach 20-25 kilos," says Alfredo Genco. However, Lopez-Nava noted that "ideally, people lose weight through diet and exercise. But if these options fail systematically, one may consider the ball."

Besides reducing weight, "the ball is effective in cases of obese people with associated diseases, including type 2 diabetes, experts say. According to the studies presented, 45.8% of adults treated with balloon experienced improvements in the diseases associated with overweight (apnea, hypertension ...), while 44.3% were cured and could leave drug treatment that was as consequence of these comorbidities.

As for the profile that best responds to this intervention are young women under 35-years-with a BMI under 40. "We believe the success of these patients may be due to an aesthetic factor as the desire to lose weight and look better influence on final results," the doctor Sanchinarro.
No anesthesia or surgery

"The intragastric balloon is the only procedure that we can control very early complications and comorbidities of obesity. It is very important preventive work," says Lopez-Nava. In the morbidly obese is "an effective measure to reduce the risk of stomach reduction surgery to finally have to submit," he adds.

Regarding surgery, the doctors explained that this is an outpatient process, which requires no surgery or general anesthesia. "In 96% of cases we apply a minimal sedation (midazolam or propofol)," the Italian specialist. In two hours, the patient can go home and begin to adjust to the ball, which will cost you a few days of vomiting. The extraction process, which will occur at seven months, is equal.

The most feared complication by introducing an intragastric balloon is to be broken, "but with new silicone materials, the rate of rupture is at least 0.5%," the Madrid hospital doctor. Other problems, including low incidence may be gastric perforation, gastric ulcer or intestinal obstruction.