Comparison of Short-Term Results of Laparoscopic Gastric Plication and Intragastric Balloon

Introduction: Management of obesity is difficult problem for doctors and patients. There are many methods for dealing with obesity. Intragastric Balloon (IB) is interventional and nonsurgical way of promoting weight loss in obese patients. Laparoscopic Gastric Plication (LGP) is most physiologic surgical method of bariatric surgery. This study aimed to evaluate and compare these two restrictive methods. Methods: Ninety-five obese patients (34 male and 61 female) included in this study. We compared patients treated with IB (n=52) and LGP (n=43). Data on patient demography, change in Body Mass Index (BMI) and %excess weight loss (%EWL) of 1st and 6th months were collected. Results: The study had started with 69 patients for IB group, but 4 (5.7%) of them did not tolerate the insertion and 13 had removed the balloon early after insertion (n=13 (20%)) were excluded from the study. There were 52 patients left in IB group and 43 patients in plication group. There were no statistically difference between IB and plication groups in terms of age (p=0.132), sex (p=0.262) and BMI (p=0.081). Change in total body weight (TBW), BMI and %excessive weight loss (EWL) parameters were statistically different in favor of the plication group. Conclusion: Our clinical experience has suggested that LGP and IB are effective in loss of weight in obese patients in short term. IB has an advantage of being done outpatient and has fewer complications, but it is less effective on weight loss compared to LGP. Prospective, randomized control trials are needed to choose best way.