Endoscopic Obesity Treatments Offer Alternative to Surgery
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Endoscopic treatments for obesity are under-utilized but represent an opportunity for gastroenterologists to help address the metabolic epidemic that affects up to 40% of people in the United States, according to a presentation reviewing these techniques. Lifestyle modification is the first intervention, but results in just a 5% average weight loss, according to Allison Schulman, MD, MPH, who discussed these options at the 2022 AGA Tech Summit sponsored by the AGA Center for GI Innovation and Technology. Although surgical interventions induce more weight loss and greater improvement of metabolic outcomes, they come with significant risks and many patients are reluctant to pursue them, she added. In fact, fewer than 1% of obese individuals who qualify for bariatric surgery ultimately undergo it.
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@taposh Endoscopic therapies for obesity include devices that occupy space in the stomach, such as intragastric balloons, gastric remodeling procedures like endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG), and aspiration therapy. Potential candidates for noninvasive approaches include patients with a BMI over 30 kg/m2 who have not lost sufficient weight through nonsurgical methods or those who do not want to undergo surgery or require a bridge therapy to surgery.