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Magee Unveils Weight Loss Trials

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Jul 7, 2009 8:26 pm US/Eastern

Magee Unveils Weight Loss Trials

For more information on this clinical trial at Magee, contact the Research Coordinator at 412-641-3736

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Each year, tens of thousands of Americans undergo surgery to lose weight; but now a new procedure that's being tested in Pittsburgh is helping some patients lose weight without surgery.

Magee-Women's Hospital is testing the procedure that typically takes less than 20-minutes and leaves no scars.

The Bioenterics Intragastric Balloon or "BIB" system involves putting a patient under sedation and placing a soft, expandable balloon down the esophagus and into the stomach.

Once in place, the balloon is filled with sterile saline and then floats freely in the stomach. The balloon is removed after a year inside the patient's stomach.

Dr. Anita Courcoulas, who is directing the year-long clinical study, warns that the procedure will only have long-term success if patients also change their eating habits.

"It's not the balloon alone than does it," says Dr. Courcoulas. "It was associated with a low-calorie diet and exercise and healthy eating. None of these devices -- and truthfully none of these operations -- work without the lifestyle changes."

Drew Griffin, of Monroeville, is one of the first patients to undergo the procedure at Magee.  The 45-year-old has lost 26 pounds from his 230-pound frame in only two months. 



The rate of his weight loss is now slowing, but he does not have hunger pangs.  He feels full sooner, he says.

"The first time I had a Big Mac and some fries I felt like I had Thanksgiving dinner," Griffin said.   The Bioenterics Intragastric Balloon is different from gastric bypass surgery, which reroutes the digestive tract and leaves scars. 

To qualify for the clinical trials at Magee-Women's Hospital, applicants need to have a body-mass index between 30-and-40, be fairly healthy, and must not have had any previous gastric surgery.

If you think that you might qualify contact the Research Coordinator at Magee-Womens Hospital at 412-641-3736.

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