Weight-Loss Surgery Alternatives

Weight-loss surgery is very effective for losing a lot of weight and improving or even reversing health conditions like diabetes, but as its name implies, it is surgery. Wouldn’t it be nice to get its benefits without having to undergo as serious or invasive a procedure?
Two weight-loss techniques being performed in other countries — gastric stimulation and stomach balloon — promise the benefits of weight-loss surgery without the complications of an operation. But before you hop on a plane to have one done, studies show these alternative approaches may not provide the solution you’re hoping for.

Weight-Loss Surgery Alternatives: Do They Work?
These procedures are less invasive than the two most common weight-loss surgeries — gastric bypass surgery and adjustable gastric band surgery — but studies haven’t found that they’re very effective, says Thomas H. Magnuson, MD, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Bariatric Surgery in Baltimore.
What’s more, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration hasn’t approved either of the procedures, so you can’t get them in the United States unless they’re being done as part of an investigational study, Dr. Magnuson says.
Here’s an overview of what they are and what risks they may carry.


Weight-Loss Surgery Alternatives: Implantable Gastric Stimulation
This procedure involves putting electrodes or a pacemaker on the stomach wall and using electrical impulses to induce the sensation of feeling full. However, results haven’t shown it to be any more effective than just cutting calories from your diet.
In one recent study of 190 patients, researchers implanted the gastric stimulator in all the patients, but only turned it on in half of them. At the same time, each participant cut 500 calories from his or her diet and met with a support group every month. After 12 months both groups lost about 12 percent of their extra weight.
“In general, most studies have shown that it doesn’t cause near enough weight loss" compared to the high success rate of weight-loss surgery, Magnuson says.
Weight-Loss Surgery Alternatives: The Intragastric Balloon
In this technique, an intragastric, or stomach, balloon, is placed in your stomach with an endoscope, a medical tube inserted through the mouth, and is then filled with salt water or air. The inflated balloon creates a feeling of fullness — it takes less food to satisfy you and consequently you lose weight. The balloon can stay in place for six months, but then must be removed because stomach acid can corrode and deflate it.
“It used to be popular in the 1970s and has lost favor,” Magnuson says. “There are certainly potential side effects or complications.” For one, nausea and vomiting may occur for a few days after the balloon is inserted; ulcers and even a case of pancreatitis have been reported. By far the most serious complication is that the balloon can deflate before being removed and there’s a risk that it can become trapped in the bowel and need to be removed surgically, or lead to fatal consequences if it’s not. However, experts say that the balloons used in today’s procedures are safer and carry less risk of severe complications than those used 20 years ago.
But, even when it’s inserted and removed safely, it doesn’t look to be effective for long-term weight loss, Magnuson says. “So far, we haven’t found anything that results in the same reversal of obesity-related medical problems" that weight-loss surgery such as the gastric bypass and adjustable gastric band offer, Magnuson adds.
Weight-Loss Surgery Alternatives: What’s Next?
Doctors are still looking for less invasive ways to get the results of weight-loss surgery. One possibility to help people lose weight, Magnuson says, is a pill that works on hormones in the stomach that control appetite. A magic pill for weight loss? Now that’s something everyone’s been waiting for.