Utilization of Temporary Controllable Intragastric Pseudobezoars for the Treatment of Obesity

The growing worldwide obesity epidemic has prompted the development of two main treatment streams: 1) conservative approaches and 2) invasive techniques. However, only invasive surgical methods have delivered significant and sustainable benefits. Therefore, contemporary research exploration has focused on the development of gastric volume reduction methods having noninvasive administration and termination, while featuring a safe but reliable and long-term sustainable weight loss effect similar to the one delivered by bariatric surgeries. This antiobesity approach is based on placing external devices in the stomach ranging from intragastric balloons to temporary pseudobezoars for a predetermined amount of time. The present review examines the evolution of these techniques from invasively positionable and removable units to completely noninvasive patient-controllable implements. Comparative discussion over the available pilot and clinical studies related to temporary controllable pseudobezoars outlines this new concept as an alternative gastric volume reduction antiobesity strategy. Available short-term studies reported an average weight loss of 6 % for a 1-month period. The beneficial features of this method include patient-specific design, performance flexibility, full controllability, and particularly low level or lack of side effects. More multicenter, placebo-controlled, long-term studies on a significant number of patients and further technological improvements of the design of the pseudobezoars are required before the technique can be considered a reliable alternative to present-day bariatric surgeries.