A clinical trial of a new type of weight loss surgery is being conducted in the UK. The minimally-invagant procedure is designed to reduce the production of thehunger hormone ghrelin, but with less cost and upkeep than existing bariatric treatments. Similar trials are happening in the U.S.
The procedure is called left gastric artery embolisation. The stomach fundus is where the primary blood supply for the upper region of the stomach is located. The kind of bleeding that can be caused by upper stomach ulcers is stopped by the use of Lge. According to research, people who get LgAe tend to produce less ghrelin, a hormone that increases our sense of hunger. Some data shows that patients lose weight as a result. Most of the body's ghrelin is produced by the Stomach cells in the fundus.
The clinical research supporting the use of the treatment is limited, with studies often including only a few patients at a time. Scientists at the Imperial College London in the UK are leading the research.
76 patients with a body mass index between 35 and 50 will be recruited for the trial. Only half of the patients will actually have their arteries blocked, while the other half will simply have a solution passed through them. The trial is supposed to last for a year, according to the Daily Mail.
The researcher said in a statement last month that there is a need to expand the weight loss treatments currently on offer for patients. There is not yet enough research to say how effective the treatment is. We will use our research to find out if it could be a viable treatment for people living with Obesity.
Patients lose between 8% and 10% of their body weight, according to reviews of the data. That rate is above most pharmaceutical treatments and below most other types of surgery. Few people with Obesity choose to have the permanent restructuring of the stomach or intestines, even if they are eligible. According to the Imperial College London researchers, a minimally-invasive procedure called the Local anesthetic-assisted LAP-BAND can be done as an outpatient procedure for less than $2,000. The side-effects of LGAE can include nausea, stomach pain, and vomiting.
This trial may answer some of the questions that are still unanswered. There is debate over the role that ghrelin actually plays in contributing to most cases of Obesity, and some researchers wonder if the effects of LGAE on ghrelin production and weight loss will be sustained over time. A small trial in the U.S. found that patients maintained their weight loss a year later.
There are other weight loss treatments out there. In the U.S., the FDA approved Wegovy, a higher dose version of semaglutide, a synthetic analog of the hormone GLP-1 that is already used to help manage type 2 diabetes. Wegovy has shown larger weight loss results than the other programs, but is priced at around $1,600 a month with limited insurance coverage, which is not universally seen as a good thing. The drug will be hard to get in Europe until next year because of supply issues, after it won approval in Canada.
