As the obesity epidemic becomes a growing health concern all over the world and particularly in countries such as the United States, the Food and Drug Administration analyzes more and more new methods to shed pounds as citizens strive for healthier bodies - and the most recent treatment of the kind of a weight loss balloon.
The FDA press release regarding the weight loss balloon relates the device is called the ReShape Integrated Dual Balloon System (ReShape Dual Ballon), and it's intended to make weight loss easier for adult patients with obesity by occupying space in the stomach, triggering feelings of fullness.
The new weight loss balloon is a temporary device planted on a person's stomach through a minimally invasive procedure (which lasts less than 30 minutes while the patient is under mild sedation) and should be used for no more than six months to treat cases of severe obesity.
According to Web MD, upon being inside the body, the newly approved weight loss balloon is inflated with a sterile solution, although it doesn't change the natural anatomy of the patient's body, as users have go follow heavily supervised exercise and diet plans, which they have to follow even after they've had the device removed.
As The Associated Press reports, the weight loss balloon is aimed at the growing population suffering from obesity, which currently (and for the past decade) amounts to more than one third of adults in the U.S., and in extreme cases these people are advised to go through surgery to improve their condition; basically, surgery is recommended for people whose Body Mass Index stands at 40 or whose BMI is at 35 with other health risk factors.
"For those with obesity, significant weight loss and maintenance of that weight loss often requires a combination of solutions including efforts to improve diet and exercise habits," said acting director of Device Evaluation at the FDA, William Maisel, in the statement about the newly approved weight loss balloon. "This new balloon device provides doctors and patients with a new non-surgical option that can be quickly implanted, is non-permanent, and can be easily removed."
