Gastric Balloon Surgery

Gastric Balloon Surgery is one of the weight-loss surgeries you can have at Chérie Group Medical. This is a procedure that is meant to give the patient a quick sense of fullness when eating to make them lose weight. As the name should clue you in, this operation involves putting a silicon balloon inside your stomach to make you feel full quicker. Since the balloon takes up space inside your stomach, the amount of food you can consume is also limited. Unlike gastric bypass and gastric sleeve, this is a nonsurgical procedure, and the gastric balloon usually lasts for about 6 months and then same as its first placement into your body, the balloon is taken out with endoscopy. There are some known procedures that perform this treatment without endoscopy like the ones require the balloon to be taken as a pill. Which is passed through naturally after a couple of months.

To qualify for gastric balloon surgery, you should have a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 27-40. This operation is usually performed when diet or exercise proves useless in the long run and this operation can help someone lose about 10% to 20% of total body weight over the course of six months. Because the entry for qualification is as low as 27 BMI, more people can qualify for this procedure.

Gastric Balloon Surgery at Chérie Group Medical takes about 30 minutes and if you do not seem to have a negative reaction to the operation, then you will be free to leave the hospital. You might have some nausea or vomiting but it should pass in a couple of days. If it does not, then seek medical attention.

As a word of warning, Gastric Balloon Surgery is not a replacement for diet or exercise, and you can gain weight quite rapidly if you do not follow dietary guidelines provided for you after the balloon is taken out. The road to a healthy life is rocky road and there are no shortcuts. You should have this operation if you are certain that you will continue your life with a healthy lifestyle.

After the procedure

You can have small amounts of clear liquids starting about six hours after the procedure. The liquid diet generally continues until the start of the second week, when you can start eating soft foods. You’ll probably be able to start eating regular food around three weeks after the insertion of the intragastric balloon.

Intragastric balloons are left in place for up to 6 months and are then removed using an endoscope. At that time, a new balloon may be placed, or not, depending on the plan determined by you and your doctor.

You’ll also meet with members of your medical team, such as your nutritionist and psychologist, frequently after your procedure.

Results

A gastric balloon takes up space in your stomach which will result in feeling full faster than normal so you will eat less then you normally would. There are some other reasons for the feeling of fullness. One is that gastric balloon slows down how long it takes to empty the stomach and the gastric balloon has also been observed to change the hormone levels that control the feeling of appetite.

Based on a summary of currently available treatments, loss of about 7% to 15% of body weight is typical during the six months after intragastric balloon placement. Total excess weight loss ranges from 30% to 47%.

As with other procedures and surgeries that lead to significant weight loss, the intragastric balloon may help improve or resolve conditions often related to being overweight, including:

• Gastroesophageal reflux disease
• High blood pressure
• Obstructive sleep apnea
• Osteoarthritis (joint pain)
• Heart disease
• Type 2 diabetes
• High cholesterol
• Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) or nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)