Weight-loss Device Designed to Trick Brains of Obese Individuals
By Hugh C. McBride
Weight-loss experts with the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota are preparing to test an implantable device that will attempt to help obese individuals lose weight by tricking their brains into believing that their stomachs are full.
In a July 6, 2008, article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, UM weight-loss surgeon Dr. Sayeed Ikramuddin told staff writer Maura Lerner that there has been no shortage of volunteers for the upcoming tests on the VBLOC, a device that is manufactured by EnteroMedics Inc.More than 80 potential recruits showed up this month to hear about the experiment at the University of Minnesota, one of 15 sites testing the device (the Mayo Clinic is another). "The room was full each time," said Ikramuddin, who hosted three information sessions. "Everybody wants to lose weight. The issue is, how?"
In this case, a pacemaker-like device is inserted just beneath the skin near the rib cage. It sends electrical impulses to block the vagus nerve, which tells the brain when the stomach is empty. The idea, in effect, is to trick the brain in order to curb the appetite.
According to information on the EnteroMedics website, the VBLOC "delivers high frequency, low energy electrical signals through laparoscopically implanted leads to block vagal nerve transmission. ... The system is designed to be precisely programmed and non-invasively adjusted to meet individual needs."
The Star Tribune article noted that participants in an earlier trial lost an average 15 percent of their total body weight in six months. That test, which was conducted by Mayo Clinic researchers who helped develop the device, prompted researchers to state that the VBLOC "shows promise as a reversible and less extreme alternative to existing bariatric surgeries."
The wide-scale testing that is planned for this summer is part of EnteroMedics' effort to win the approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market the VBLOC device in the United States.
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