Obesity has now been established as a global epidemic causing significant socio-economic and healthcare issues. Obesity is also associated with significant medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnoea, fertility issues, cardio vascular disease, gout and some cancers. Keyhole (laparoscopic) weight loss surgery has been well studied and has been proved to result in sustained long term weight loss with an improvement or resolution of a number of medical conditions. Laparoscopic (keyhole) sleeve gastrectomy particularly has been established as one of the most effective and safest weight loss procedures.
In recent years endoscopic weight loss procedures (using a telescope inserted into the stomach) have been established and evolved for people who do not want an operation or who are unsuitable for surgery. One of the endoscopic procedures that has gained some popularity is the endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty. This weight loss procedure is performed under general anaesthesia and involves stitching the stomach from the inside to reduce its size by about 60-70%. However, although this procedure has been shown to be safe and has satisfactory outcomes for weight loss, the long term benefits are not well proven. Furthermore when comparing this endoscopic procedure with the keyhole sleeve gastrectomy the results in terms of weight loss are substantial.
