January 27, 2015 – Permanent or Reversible?

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Anchor lead:  Are permanent or reversible techniques better for weight loss surgery? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Surgical techniques for achieving weight loss keep being developed, and if you’re considering such surgery, especially as studies continue to show benefit, which is best?  Kimberly Steele, a bariatric surgeon at Johns Hopkins, says while reversible techniques may seem attractive, so far they don’t appear to work as well.

Steele: These things might be reversible like the laparoscopic adjustable gastric band, except maybe there needs to be a physiologic change like when you do a gastric bypass on a patient, which actually does do something physiologic immediately.  There might need to be a balance between the two. And certainly we’re doing a lot of research here at our center and we’re trying to come up with new and novel ways to address obesity, how to prevent it and how to hopefully cure it.   :30

Steele says for now, tried and true as well as choosing a center with abundant experience is likely best.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.