%0 Journal Article
%T Gastric Electrical Stimulation for the Treatment of Obesity: From Entrainment to Bezoars¡ªA Functional Review
%A Martin P. Mintchev
%J ISRN Gastroenterology
%D 2013
%R 10.1155/2013/434706
%X Growing worldwide obesity epidemic has prompted the development of two main treatment streams: (a) conservative approaches and (b) invasive techniques. However, only invasive surgical methods have delivered significant and sustainable benefits. Therefore, contemporary research exploration has focused on the development of minimally invasive gastric manipulation methods 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 electrodes for gastric electrical stimulation to temporary intraluminal bezoars for gastric volume displacement for a predetermined amount of time. The present paper examines the evolution of these techniques from invasively implantable units to completely noninvasive patient-controllable implements, from a functional, rather than from the traditional, parametric point of view. Comparative discussion over the available pilot and clinical studies related to gastric electrical stimulation outlines the promises and the fallacies of this concept as a reliable alternative anti-obesity strategy. 1. Introduction 1.1. Obesity as a World Wide Health Problem The World Health Organization (WHO) announced recently that worldwide obesity has increased more than twice since 1980 [1]. WHO statistics outlined 1.5 billion overweight adults in 2008. A significant percentage of them were obese: nearly 300 million women and over 200 million men. An earlier report [2] revealed a diminishing initial age of obesity onset, with nearly 43 million overweight children under the age of five [1]. Even veterinary scientists have researched obesity in pets and its correlation with the obesity of their owners [3]. The WHO list of world¡¯s top 25 fattest countries covers all continents except Antarctica and sub-Saharan Africa [1, 4]. 65% of the world¡¯s population lives in countries where overweight and obesity kill more people than underweight and hunger. Moreover, obesity rates in the United States, Australia, and Canada increase faster than the overall worldwide rate [5]. Projections up to 2030 indicate that more than 36% of the population in the developed countries will be overweight and more than 22%¡ªobese [6]. WHO prognosis for 2015 is that overweight adults will balloon to 2.3 billion, affecting both the developed and developing world [1, 2, 6]. Obesity is an important key factor for comorbidities and related mortality and is also increasingly considered as a type of cellular malnutrition and a
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn.gastroenterology/2013/434706/