Gastric Banding: Surgical vs Virtual

Stacey Morrison discovers whether a virtual gastric band is as good as the actual physical one.Imagine if imagining weight loss could make it happen.Virtual Gastric Banding (VGB) has been around for several years the idea is that you are put in a hypnotic state and convinced that you have a band around your stomach.Interestingly, the surgical equivalent to this has been deemed ineffective and is no longer recommended here in New Zealand.Dr Peng Du, who is on the Gastrointestinal Research Group at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, said gastric banding was for a long time perceived as a relatively low risk surgery as it is reversible.But the surgery is no longer recommended after long term studies showed that patients did not achieve long term weight loss."Imagine tying a piece of string around a very slippery balloon that sometimes inflates and sometimes deflates. It's very hard to keep it on the stomach," said Du, "And patients who have these bands tied around their stomach sometimes could have quite severe reflux. So when you weigh the outcome against the cost and complications, I guess the math just doesn't add up."There are two other types of gastric surgery for weightloss; the gastric sleeve which involves chopping part of the stomach out and the gastric bypass which involves joining the intestine to the top of the stomach. Both of these surgeries are irreversible and hard to get access to.And Dr Bryan Betty, the Medical Director of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners, said patients who are overweight either have to meet very strict criteria for publicly-funded surgery or they can go private, which at a cast of roughly $25,000 dollars isn't cheap."Generally we'd start by focusing on things like diet and exercise, the basics of trying to lose weight," said Betty.Then he said they would look at things like access to other services, such as a dietician, food addicts support networks, health coaches or occasionally a psychologist.Weight loss medication is an option too, and while it can kick-start weightloss, it's not a long-term solution.And after all of that, there is bariatric surgery."I've had a patient or two who have actually travelled overseas to Thailand or Mexico to get it done and then come back to New Zealand," said Betty.What is not often recommended as part of this process is virtual gastric banding or hypotherapy for weightloss…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details