Treatments

Gastric Balloon / Ingestible Capsule

The Gastric Balloon / Ingestible Capsule is a simple and effective method to lose weight without surgery.

More than 500 patients successfully treated by gastric balloon
Safe, simple and effective method
Applied in 10 minutes and back to normal life in 24-48 hours

What does the Gastric Balloon consist of?

The Gastric Balloon is a safe and effective method that consists of placing a balloon inside the stomach.

It occupies a good part of the light of the stomach providing satiety and emotional control with the food. The key to this treatment is the multidisciplinary intervention and the patient's desire to change their habits.

Find out more

Learn more about the Gastric Balloon

We do have experience. We keep track of our patients.
When the patient has been applied in the therapy, and has been able to lose the expected weight, he is able to maintain the weight loss achieved, or even lose a little more, a year after finishing the treatment with the intragastric balloon.
In the study, two years after the balloon was removed, the patients recover 5-10% of the lost weight (always talking about the group that has been applied and has lost the weight that it should during the treatment).
When patients do not lose the expected weight during treatment (weight that is calculated in advance), patients often let themselves go and easily regain lost weight.

Patients with BMI between 27 and 34, who have tried other non-interventional methods, without success, and who are willing to change eating habits and lifestyle.

The ball occupies a large part of the stomach's capacity, creating a double effect:
Provides a feeling of fullness to the patient. When the patient eats "it feels very soon that it is full", avoiding excessive meals.
It slows down the speed of emptying the stomach, thus lengthening the feeling of fullness throughout the day. "Eliminate" the vicious circle of hunger-anxiety-hunger. Provides a sense of control right from the start

The Gastric Balloon is a safe and very effective method, which allows patients to lose between 15 to 20 kg. of weight.

It is implanted without endoscopy or sedation, in 10 minutes, in a simple way, only with radiological control. A simple capsule is swallowed aided by small sips of water. The size is less than a "snack of a snack". The capsule contains the ball and a tube to fill it. Once in the stomach (radiological control by a medical expert), it is filled with physiological serum from 400 to 500 cc. The balloon contains a valve that is undone by the action of the acid, until it opens around 16 weeks. During this period, control abdominal ultrasounds are performed. At 16 weeks it is emptied and expelled spontaneously by faeces. Patients treated with Gastric Balloon lose about 12 to 15 kg of weight.

The silicone balloon is implanted by endoscopy and sedation by an anesthesiologist. You don't have to go in. The procedure takes about 15 minutes and the patient returns home. It has the advantage of a longer life and can be inflated up to 700 cc. Also the long experience, 15 years in our case, with this type of ball. It is removed when the patient has already lost all the expected weight, or after two months without weight loss, with a maximum time of 6 or 12 months depending on the type of balloon implanted.

6 or 12 months after implantation, it is removed by endoscopy. The endoscopic physician pricks and vacuums the contents of the balloon and removes it through the mouth.

Experience and Results

Nº of studied patients

300

Mean age

35,1years

Sex

77,7 women

22,3 men

Initial average BMI

34,7kg/m

Average BMI at 5 years

30,2kg/m

Sex

77,7 women

22,3 men

Endorsed by our patients

Estefanía 35 years, Housewife Previous weight: 71.8 Current weight: 59.2

Although I have always tried to take care of myself, it is very difficult for me to follow my diets and whenever I let them I recover what little I have lost. I was very frustrated and wanted a treatment t(...)Read more

before

after

Estefanía's weight evolution

Evolution of Estefanía's BMI

It gives you change at the level of exercises and well-being. I am happy, for me it has been very good.

Price and what the treatment includes

Clinics Valencia and Madrid

According to type of Gastric Balloon

Ingestible and Excretable Gastric Balloon (16 weeks): 4.100 euros (*) Endoscopic Gastric Balloon up to 6 months: 4.100 euros (*) Endoscopic Gastric Balloon up to 12 months: 4.650 euros (*)

Multidisciplinary follow-up

Included (12 months)

(*) Fixed hospital costs. All inclusive, except for specific preparatory studies. (Consult our Coordinator)

Organization of the operation

Preparation

Omeprazole 5-7 days prior
Liquid diet 24 hours prior
Fasting 8 hours in advance

Endoscopy

By simple endoscopy with sedation by anesthesiologist: 15 min.
By ingestion and radiological control: 10 min.

Adaptation and monitoring

24-48 hours adaptation with pharmacological support
Nutritional Work, Psychological and Physical Exercise, 12 months
24-hour localization telephone

Frequently Asked Questions

When the Gastric Balloon is placed the first days (2-3), nausea is frequent and the patient may vomit if the indicated guidelines are not followed.

Symptoms improve greatly with supportive medication. At the end of this time, the organism gets used to it, and the patient only notices the sensation of lack of appetite and that he has “something” in his stomach.

The stomach of the patients dilates very little by little and up to a limit, during the months that the Balloon is taken.
This causes that the Balloon is very effective from month 1 to 4, and that the month 5º and especially 6º the effectiveness is very small.
This phenomenon of stomach dilation is an advantage for:
If the patient loses weight in month 6, we know that he does it by himself, by changing habits, almost without the help of the balloon.
When the balloon is removed from the patient, there is no feeling of emptiness or voracious hunger. The patient doesn’t notice anything.
The stomach during a few months digests with difficulty abundant or very heavy meals, and this is beneficial finally.

The patient has no feeling of an empty stomach or exaggerated hunger.
Although the stomach is a little dilated for a few weeks, the patient does not have more capacity or excessive hunger; the patient does not notice any difference.
The patient must continue to put into practice all the principles learned, as a key to not regaining the weight lost.
Following these rules, weight loss is maintained at 80% two years after placement, in our studies.

The only way to avoid it is to maintain the new dietary and lifestyle habits you’ve learned during treatment. In this way, thanks to the weight loss provided by the Gastric Balloon, and to the new lifestyle habits learned, the patient can take back the “reins of his weight”.

In patients who wish it, a second Gastric Balloon can be placed, although it should be waited about 3 or 4 months between the 1st and 2nd BIG. It should be noted that the second Gastric Balloon is not as effective in terms of weight loss as the first.