ESG a good alternative to bypass surgery

When Elon Musk became fed up with waiting in Los Angeles traffic, he declared he would build a boring machine to create tunnels under the congestion. The bypass of all bypasses. It’s named Godot, since, as Musk joked, we’re still waiting!

Well, if you too want less weight (OK it’s a bad pun, but a good metaphor), nonsurgical, endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG) might be for you.

Most bariatric procedures performed in the United States are surgical gastric bypass operations such as Roux-en-Y. But if you don’t qualify or don’t want to have bariatric bypass surgery—in which part of your stomach is removed or your small intestine is rerouted— now there’s ESG, a safe and effective alternative.

The procedure is done endoscopically, using a tube through your mouth. With sutures, the doc creates a sleeve through the stomach to make it smaller.

The procedure is low-cost; you’re home the same day; it has a high patient-satisfaction rate; and according to researchers at the Mayo Clinic, a complication rate of only 1 percent, about 10 percent less than Roux-en-Y.

How effective is it? A recent one-year follow-up study showed laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy surgery generally leads to about 29 percent total body weight loss, compared to around 17 percent after ESG.

But ESG is more effective than laparoscopic banding surgery, which has an average body weight loss of around 14 percent.

So if you’re a candidate for a gastric weight-loss procedure, but want to avoid surgery, discuss ESG with your doctor.

Mehmet Oz, M.D. is host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” and Mike Roizen, M.D. is Chief Wellness Officer and Chair of Wellness Institute at Cleveland Clinic. To live your healthiest, tune into “The Dr. Oz Show” or visit www. sharecare.com.