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First US bariatric embolization procedure performed
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The first US bariatric embolization was recently performed by physicians at Dayton Interventional Radiology, according to a press release from the institution.
The procedure is minimally invasive. A catheter is placed into the patient’s groin or wrist and guided to the left gastric artery, blood flow to the branches of the artery is then blocked by particles smaller than a grain of sand. To date, this is the first catheter procedure used to treat obesity, according to the release.
“More than one-third of US adults are obese and approximately 5% to 7% are morbidly so,” Mubin I. Syed, MD, of Dayton Interventional Radiology, said in the release.
According to Syed, bariatric surgery is currently the only long-term procedural solution for substantial weight loss.
“You’ve got the ideal rationale to develop a minimally invasive procedure that could deliver long-term success,” Syed said. “To me that’s promising and why I practice medicine. Despite the potential to help the obese, bariatric embolization is still in the experimental phase. Therefore, its safety and long-term benefit has yet to be proven.
Research on this procedure is expected to conclude in September 2015, and investigators will collect data on safety and efficacy for patients with obesity. Patients are aged 22 to 65 years, in relatively good health and <400 lb.
“We are combining years of scientific research on the hormone ghrelin, looking at its role with respect to appetite suppression and combining it with an everyday type of embolization procedure that interventional radiologists routinely perform,” study researcher Kamal Morar, MD, said in the release.