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Tighten your tummy at the touch of a button |
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Saturday, 11 November 2006 |
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A new device has been introduced to assist obesity treatment which allows doctors to adjust a gastric band at the touch of a button.
Normal gastric band procedures involve placing a silicon ring around the patient's stomach. The gastric band constricts the size of the stomach, thereby reducing the amount of food that can be consumed before the patient feels full. The band is adjusted every few months by inserting a four inch needle into the abdomen and filling the silicon tube with a saline solution.
However, a new type of gastric band has been brought to market that allows the gastric band to be controlled electronically from outside the abdomen, doing away with the invasive adjustments previously required. Instead of a silicon ring, the band is made from a metal loop. When the doctor wishes to adjust the circumference of the band, he presses a button on his control panel and a receiver attached to the device inside the patient receives the signal and tightens the band, with no need for an invasive procedure.
Growing obesity is becoming a worldwide problem, with 4,500 gastric band procedures conducted each year in the UK, and 250,000 procedures each year in the US. Gastric band procedures are recommended only for morbidly obese patients for whom past attempts at weight loss through conventional means have failed, and whose health is seriously threatened by their obesity.
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