Their approach to obesity is that it is a multi-faceted condition with clear and varied health damaging consequences. They believe that simply telling patients to “go and lose weight” is unhelpful. Rather, they offer enlightened, sympathetic and practical guidance with the option to escalate to medical, endoscopic and surgical interventions to achieve this aim.
Reflecting this approach their clinical team is made up of nutritionists, lipidologists (blood fat experts), gastroenterologists and a hepatologist (liver expert). They also have a close working relationship with NHS colleagues at Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospital for psychological input as necessary.
Naturally, as the London Obesity Practice is located at London Bridge Hospital, they have direct access to cardiologists, gynaecologists and rheumatologists should our patients need input from these specialists.
Obesity treatments in London
The treatment ladder would usually involve advice from a dietician and psychological support from a mental health professional if required. This would be followed by the prescription of medication that reduce the absorbtion of fat from the diet or which suppress appetite. If these measures are ineffective the next step is to place into the stomach, with the help of an endoscopic camera, under sedation, a specially designed, liquid filled, silicone balloon.
This innovation offers a safer, simpler and reversible alternative to restrictive stomach surgery - gastric bands and stomach bypass operations both of which are major procedures requiring a general anaesthetic. A general anaesthetic may be particularly hazardous in the obese. These major operations until now have been the only options offered to patients after pills have failed.
The Intra-gastric balloon: A new innovation for weight loss.
The advent of balloon therapy is particularly welcomed for this reason and because the balloon can also be placed in patients contemplating having other surgery who need to reduce their operative obesity-related risks prior to surgery.
The endoscopic procedure takes about 40minutes and perhaps with an overnight stay in hospital to ensure tolerance of the balloon the patient is discharged. Recent published evidence show impressive results with the balloon. It is designed to stay in the stomach for up to 4-6 months and is also removed endoscopically under sedation. A treatment course would usually involve 2 balloons placed sequentially over a 12 month period.
