Show 12A Standard-Examin- Sunday er June 28 New approaches for correcting gross obesity 1981 WASHINGTON (UPI) — Surgeons have come up with tvo novel approaches to correct gross obesity — wrapping the stomach with plastic mesh to prevent its expansion and emplacement of a balloon in the abdomen to compress the stothese newr techniques will elimi- nate the complications thath have marred some of the surgical procedures used during the past decade to treat severely obese patients Intestinal bypasses were the first operations undertaken to provide lasting weight loss for people more 100 pounds overweight and whose health suffered from their obesity In these operations much of the intestine was bypassed thus sharply reducing the amount of food that the body can absorb Although these procedures produced major weight reductions they also often caused severe side effects with oc- casional fatal complications The intestinal bypass has been bygenerally replaced with gastric of the off cut part passes that of a stomach using variety proce dures Some doctors use surgical staples to close off part of the stomach and thus reduce the amount of food that can be consumed at one sitting Two surgeons from the Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha reported in a recent issue of the magazine Obesity and Bariatric Medicine that life threatening complications from these stomach operations are rare Dr Lawrence H Wilkinson of the New Mexico School of Medicine at Albuquerque is taking a different surgical approach His technique involes wrapping the stomach in a sheath of polypropylene mesh to constrict stomach size and thus reduce the amount of food that can be eaten Wilkinson reported in the May issue of Archives of Surgery that of 100 people who underwent such an operation all but one are losing weight satisfactorily He said no harmful side effects have been proposes press the Writing Medicine using a balloon to in Obesity and Bariatric Berson said he has invented a plastic balloon designed to be implanted in the abdomen just above the stomach with a tube extending to just beneath the skin A doctor would pressurize the balloon by feeding saline solution needle extending throughtheaskin g into a through noted port in the tube The filled balloon Dr Daniel Berson of the New would create a full feeling and also York Medical College at Valhalla compress the stomach to reduce its self-sealin- food capacity ' 's ' & 0 'v ' “ - O SePsdl'S for summer holidays and vacations with storewide family-planne-d buys and individual sensations Enjoy yourself! i com- stomach '' A J ' than |