Hi all

has anyone heard of the procedure. bio centric intragastric balloon. It was on my local TV news station last night.... (Channel 9 Perth in Australia)

My understand of what it is , is a balloon being inserted into the stomach and filled with liquid to reduce the amount of food being absorbed. It is a temporary weight loss treatment, designed for obese people needing to lose weight for surgery or as a step for the lap band.... it suppose to remain in your stomach for up to 6 months then removed.

has anyone had this process, before getting banded or heard of it and know any more, i cant seem to find anything on the web about it.

any comments welcomed....thanks Dee

Hey Dee, nope, I've never heard of this! If it really works, then it would offer hope to folks who aren't yet MO

Hi Dee -

I have heard of it. It doesn't interfere with food absorption, though, it just takes up room in the stomach so there's less room for food, so you feel full on less.

The drawback to that is, of course, that it is only a temporary tool, and once it's removed, capacity to eat more than needed returns, and most people will, of course, eat more than needed because they're looking for that "full" feeling that the balloon helped give them on less food.

thanks donali much appreciated...cant find much info about it....so spose will just have to wait to see my dr to ask him ....thanks anyway....cheers dee

while researching for the band, i came across a site for a doctor in cancun (if my memory is correct) who did this balloon, in addition to the band. it's something they put in, but then have to remove in six months, after which another could be inserted.

yeh northerner...that what was said on the tv program....can have multiple balloons inserted one after another...

the dr on the tv that was talking about it, is one of the first in australia, or in western australia to do this op.....I think it has been done more in america.....we wait for your drs to experiment on you lot and when they got it right ....our aussie drs do it haahahahahah but there isnt much info on the net....could only get a short explaination of one site i visited....even went to this drs site in aust to check him out but he didnt mention it as one of his treatments so it must be really new or his IT gurus for his site aint doing their job and displaying it hahahahaahahaha

so if i find any more info on it i will post a thread so it can be a handy reference for others, as a prequel to lapbanding, or as a short term weight loss thingy....better than no weight loss hahahaahah...

ok cheers...Dee

I see lots of info on this - also known as the B.I.B. (Bioenterics Intragastric Balloon):

http://www.dietaonweb.it/inglese/bib.asp

http://www.inamed.com/pdf/health/94212B_BIB_Product_Data_Sheet_Intl.pdf

http://www.obesity-online.com/bib/literatbib.htm

http://gastroenterology.jwatch.org/cgi/content/full/2005/301/1

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/fd/os/2004/00000014/00000004/art00016

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/fd/os/2005/00000015/00000001/art00017

http://www.bajanor.com/ingles/bb.htm

I have heard that inamed makes a baloon for the same purpose. I know Lopez used one on a super obese person who had to lose weight before being able to get the lapband. I recall seeing the article before I had my surgery. Too bad they can't be permanent. Seems even less invasive than the band.

donali....thanks muchly for the links....you are an angel....cheers Dee

I also have heard of it. I was told that it was very expensive, in the 5K range... each balloon. That's a lot of money if you have more than one placed, seems like if you need more than one, you might as well get a band placed.

Intresting stuff...seems as though it doesnt have the same weight loss results as the band and also is just a short term tool. Can someone tell me how to turn Kg into Lbs. I would like to see what kind of weight loss results they got and it was with MO patients so Im sure the weight loss would be less with the lower amount of wieght someone has to loss.

2.2 lbs per kg

OK so I asked Dr Kuri about this procedure and this is the responce I got....Good for two types 1)very high BMI who need to lose before the lapband or Gastric Bypass and 2) for people with BMI under 35. Keep in mind those who do it with the low BMI are at a very high risk for regain as this is only kept in for 6 months and also your stom doesnt shrink cause the balloon is taking up space in there so when its out in order to feel the way u felt with it in u would have to eat a LOT more. He suggests very heavy nutritional classes while u r using it as a tool to initially lose the weight, and then continue with them to try to keep ur behavior modification......what do u all think? Also the procedure costs 2,800

Guess what !! I have a balloon on my stomach. Yes, I had the procedure done on 27 April 2005. I'm 2nd person in Malaysia to have this.

Actually I admitted myself to a local hospital for gastrik bypass surgery. Because I'm a morbid obesity, I had 2 other problem to tackle before the surgery, mainly first my blood oxygen level was dangerously low and secondly my Water retention is to high. It only took 3 days to drain out water from my body but it took 4 weeks on 24 hours oxygen pump before my lung functioning at almost normal rate.

4 days before surgery, my doc suggest me BIB. A doctor from Brazil came to Malaysia for a special workshop and need someone to become a model forthe workshop. Apparently I'm the only patient fit enough that time. I took the offer, oh yeah.... it's free baby !!!

The procedure took 15 minutes but they woke my up only after 2 hours. As mentioned in the manual booklet, i was vomitting and blurping for 24 hours, and suffering from stomach cramp for 1 week.

Now my body get us to this foreign object. When I drink or eat too much, I will feel like vomitting, sometime I do.

I will continue to report in once a month, on 1st June I need to report in for sleeping test, as part of my breathing treatment, nothing to do with BIB.

Email me if you want to ask anything. I hardly on forum.

By the way ... I lost 80 kg @ 160 ouns during my 5 week stay in hospital. Most of it water.

WOW! 160 pounds of water? Amazing!

Thanks Meyour for saying hello. I hope to see you on lapbandtalk more.