It is an exciting innovative development in the obesity surgical field and transforms the lives of people who are obese, unable to lose weight or keep their weight down.
This new therapy has been developed by an American company called Transneuronix and is available from Harehill Park in the UK. It offers hope, weight loss and a new lease of life for obese people without the risks associated with major gastric surgery or long term medications. Other surgical treatments currently have a 1% chance of surgical death with a 20% chance of serious post-operative complications. In contrast to this the internal gastric stimulator has been shown to be very safe.
The Internal Gastric Stimulator (IGS) is an exciting new development that will revolutionise the treatment of obesity in the UK.
The Transcend (TM) Internal Gastric Stimulator consists of a small battery operated device implanted into the abdomen. A small wire connects the device to the stomach wall. Rather like a cardiac pacemaker, which sends electrical impulses to the heart, the internal gastric stimulator delivers a small current to the stomach wall. The current is adjusted through a hand held computer by the doctor, which ‘talks’ to the stimulator through a radio signal. The gastric stimulator works by delivering a gentle energy to the stomach causing it to relax and signalling a feeling of fullness and satiety to the brain.Patients usually do not feel anything when the stimulator is working. The key-hole surgery takes just about one hour and patients can be admitted as day cases.
Since it was first developed in the mid-1990’s over 700 successful implants have taken place in numerous research studies.The IGS is available in Europe and currently being launched in the UK. The research results have been astonishing, indicating that weight is not only lost but the weight loss is maintained over time.
In the UK, the incidence of obesity has trebled in the past twenty years with 21% of men and 24% of womenconsidered to be clinically obese. It is estimated that if the current trend continues 35% of the population will be obese in 6 years time.