Thursday, August 9, 2007

Eat Away, Just Don't Digest

Filed under: GI

News 14 of North Carolina is reporting that the Carolinas Medical Center has implanted its first Endobarrier Gastrointestinal Liner as an experiment in treating morbid obesity, especially in type 2 diabetics. Similar in function to gastrointestinal bypass surgery, in that it limits digestion, the device is implanted non-invasively through the esophagus. Though information is almost non-existent about the device online, including who the manufacturer is, it is also being experimented with at Academisch Ziekenhuis Maastricht (Maastricth Academic Hospital, Holland).

From News 14:

"This is again performed endoscopically with a device that goes down the esophagus into the stomach where the device is deployed. The theory is food goes on the inside of this endobarrier. The digestive enzymes are on the outside of the endobarrier and the food and digestive enzymes don't mix until two feet further down stream in the smaller bowel."

While it is similar to the gastric bypass, it's not a replacement for those who need the surgery just yet.

"For now, it's not instead of, it's prior too gastric bypass. Whether or not this becomes a procedure instead of gastric bypass remains to be seen," said Gersin.

At 2-3 months, the average weight loss is 20-30 pounds.

More from News 14 with Video of the EndoBarrier...

And in Dutch from Nieuws.nl...

                (1)

Name:


Email Address
(will not be published):


URL:

Remember personal info?
(anonymous comments allowed)

Yes No

Comments:

Enter the above anti-spambot
Turing code:

Click the "Post" button only once!