Endoscopic treatment of obesity.
Obesity is a worldwide epidemic, complex metabolic disease associated with a variety of severe comorbidities. Bariatric surgery provides the patients with the benefits of sustained weight loss and improves obesity-related comorbidities, but can result in potentially life-threatening complications. Gastrointestinal endoscopy has recently been proposed as a scarless and noninvasive approach to obesity. Most of the current endoluminal devices and techniques are comparable to restrictive surgery. A variety of medical devices and procedures have been evaluated in recent years; however, with the exception of the intragastric balloon, evaluation of all the other endoluminal procedures is limited by the numbers of patients treated, the short follow-up and especially by the study design. Today, only a few devices have been evaluated in randomized controlled trials. The preliminary results of the first studies are extremely promising, but definitive statements cannot be drawn yet.
Digestive Endoscopy Unit, Agostino Gemelli University Hospital, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Roma, Italy.
Pietro
P
Familiari
Ivo
I
Boškoski
Michele
M
Marchese
Vincenzo
V
Perri
Guido
G
Costamagna
D050110:Bariatric Surgery; D016099:Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D005746:Gastric Emptying / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D009765:Obesity / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014481:United States