MIT engineers have revealed a new gastric balloon design that can inflate on demand to make you feel full before meals.
Imagine a professional inflating a balloon with a small pump. No, we’re not talking about a clown at a birthday party, but engineers in a laboratory designing a medical product to treat obesity.
Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have designed a new type of dynamic gastric balloon—a balloon that goes in the stomach—for weight loss treatment. The design, detailed in a December 3 study in the journal Device, can be inflated on command, and could offer an alternative for weight loss drugs and invasive procedures such as gastric bypass surgery.
A traditional gastric balloon is essentially a bag of air or saltwater surgically inserted into the stomach to give the patient a feeling of fullness and prevent them from overeating. While this has proved effective for weight loss in the short term, the stomach has the frustrating ability to adjust to the new sensation, making the benefits temporary, according to the study. The MIT engineers’ new design aims to avoid this result by inflating and deflating as needed, never allowing the stomach to adjust.
