Endoscopic Sleeve Gastroplasty: A Promising New Weight Loss Procedure

Endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty offers an effective weight loss intervention at lower cost and higher patient satisfaction, potentially filling this gap in the management of obesity.”

Endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty falls under the umbrella of endoscopy, a nonsurgical procedure gastroenterologists use to examine a person’s digestive tract. Using an endoscope, a flexible tube with a light and camera attached to it, endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty reduces the size of the stomach by creating a sleeve using a set of sutures .

The patients with obesity, endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty reduced excess body weight by 54 percent at one year. Further, the procedure delayed solid food emptying from the stomach and created an earlier feeling of fullness during a meal, which resulted in a more significant and long-lasting weight loss.

Endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty was well tolerated as an outpatient treatment, requiring less than two hours of procedure time. Patients resumed their normal lifestyle within one to three days. The treatment was performed using standard “off-the-shelf” endoscopic tools as opposed to specific weight loss devices or platforms. The cost of endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty is roughly one-third that of bariatric surgery.