By Alexander Germanis
One only has to make a trip to the store or spend five minutes people-watching at a sporting event to see that many individuals in this country are overweight. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over one-third of American adults are classified as severely overweight, meaning their body metabolic index is 30 or higher. This would translate to a man of average height — about 5 feet, 9 inches — weighing 203 pounds or more.
Unfortunately, it is often far easier to gain weight than to take it off. To complicate matters, it is extremely easy to overeat, as the brain and stomach often take up to twenty minutes to communicate to one another that the stomach is sufficiently full, and there is no need to consume more food.
The standard response to weight gain is, and has been, diet and exercise; but there are many people who, as Dr. Sidney Rohrscheib of Clinton explains, “decide for themselves that diet and exercise no longer provide them satisfactory control of their weight. In short, [these patients search for other options] when they are frustrated with what they feel is something they can no longer control.”
Quite often, those other options do not or cannot include surgical interventions, such as LAP-BAND® surgery. Whether “patients are not candidates for, or are not comfortable with, any form of surgery,” Dr. Rohrscheib assures there is now a new alternative, one which was just approved by the FDA in August: the ORBERA™ Intragastric balloon.
Utilizing a new incision-less, non-surgical, outpatient approach, the ORBERA™ balloon is temporarily placed within the stomach by way of endoscope, while the patient is asleep under a mild sedative. The thin, deflated, durable silicone balloon is inserted via the esophagus. Once placed, the balloon is filled with saline, and remains in place for a period of six months, after which it is removed in a reverse procedure: the saline is drained, the balloon is deflated, and removed the same way it was inserted.
But the ORBERA™ Intragastric Balloon System is a two-part program. Simply placing the ORBERA™ balloon in the stomach is only the first part of the overall ORBERA™ Managed Weight Loss Program. For the six months the balloon is in place, the patient receives “ongoing support from his team of experts in the form of dietary counseling and behavior therapy,” Dr. Rohrscheib says.
In order to avoid the yo-yo effect common to any form of weight loss program or surgery, for another “six months after balloon removal, patients will continue to receive diet and exercise coaching with that same team of experts on a schedule similar to that while the balloon was still in place,” the doctor continues. “The dietitian and behaviorist will continue to monitor weight, diet, and habits to see that best practices are continued as the patient transitions away from not having the effect from the implant. If this program is adhered to, and patients stick to the healthy lifestyle and new habits they will learn along the way, they can maintain their weight loss. People from the ORBERA™ U.S. trial lost an average of 3.1 times the weight patients lost with diet and exercise alone, which equated to an average of 38 percent excess weight loss (EWL) at six months.”
But like any other weight loss procedure, ORBERA™ is not a panacea for weight loss. Data collected from its use outside the United States, “in well-established programs with good follow-up of patients, reveals patients returning for repeat procedures with some frequency,” Dr. Rohrscheib says.
“This fits well with our evolving view of obesity and its treatment,” the doctor adds. “We don’t cure obesity, we manage it over time with treatments that work to varying degrees. There is a potential for weight regain after removal of the balloon, but it is slower, and to a lesser extent than with non-surgical therapies; having said that, there is no contraindication to a patient having repeated balloon insertions.”
For more information on the ORBERA™ Managed Weight Loss Program or LAP-BAND® surgery, you may contact Dr. Sidney Rohrscheib at the Illinois Bariatric Center at 217-935-7037. Illinois Bariatric Center is one of the few practices in Central Illinois that is qualified to offer the ORBERA™ procedure. The practice provides a unique multidisciplinary program dedicated to the management and treatment of obesity.
Photos courtesy of Illinois Bariatric Center