Balloons for Weight Loss

SAN FRANCISCO. (KFSN) -- Diets, drugs, supplements, and surgery. These are all ways people try to lose weight. But a controversial report in the New York Times claims only half the people who try to lose those extra pounds actually keep the weight off. Now, there's a new, non-surgical approach that could help you finally shed 30, 40, even 50 pounds.

Kimberly Rhodes is 14 years old but she's battled obesity since she was a toddler.

Rhodes is not alone. But now, this may be the next non-surgical breakthrough for those who are struggling with losing weight.

Professor of Medicine and Chief of Endoscopy at the Washington University School of Medicine, Steven Edmundowicz, MD, explained, "It is a balloon that is used to take up space in the stomach to help people lose their appetite."

The Obalon balloon is inside a capsule and attached to a slender tube. It's swallowed by the patient. And in less than five minutes, the capsule dissolves, releasing the balloon.

"Once it's in the stomach, it is then attached to a little nitrogen canister and it is inflated with nitrogen gas," said Dr. Edmundowicz. After two weeks, a second balloon can be added, even a third if needed.

Dr. Edmundowicz told Ivanhoe, "Most patients feel that there's something different in their stomach, they feel a sense of fullness, a sense of something there, but they don't really feel like they can't eat."

After six months, a scope through the mouth is used to deflate the balloon and remove it. Dr. Edmundowicz says the results can be similar to gastric bypass surgery, but as with any weight loss method, the patient has to be motivated.

Dr. Edmundowicz clarified, "Anyone can gain weight with any of these interventions, whether its surgery or the balloons, if they modify their diet and they drink high-caloric drinks, for example, all day long, you'll still be able to gain weight."

The only risk would be if the balloon collapses and causes an obstruction in the intestinal track, but that has not happened in the clinical trials happening in more than a dozen hospitals across the country. Although it may take a few more years to get FDA approval in the United States, it is available in Europe, Mexico and the Middle East.

If you would like more information, please contact:

Steven Edmundowicz, M.D.

10 Barnes West Dr., Suite 200

Saint Louis, MO 63141

314-454-5960

edmundowiczst@wustl.edu