Obesity tummy tap worries surgeons

A new age of bizarre treatments for obesity has set off alarm bells for medical experts, and prompted warnings about quick fixes for weight loss.

Among them is a tummy tap – designed to allow people to drain up to a third of their stomach contents into a toilet after eating – which has been approved in the United States and is now set to hit the market in Australia.

Known as AspireAssist, the device has been dubbed ‘‘enforced bulimia’’ by Christchurch bariatric surgeon Steven Kelly.

Kelly was unsure whether the device would show up in New Zealand because of our small market but he said there were ‘‘always people trying to make money on new devices and treatments’’.

The device did reduce weight, Kelly said, but not in a healthy way.

‘‘It achieves weight loss through inducing bulimia without the vomiting, and I think it’s crazy.’’

Kelly’s comments came during the annual scientific meeting of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) in Brisbane, Australia yesterday.

Kelly wasn’t at the conference but weighed in by phone following a talk by leading Brisbane gastroenterologist Dr Matthew Remedios, who was concerned about ‘‘entrepreneurial procedures’’ or fad treatments.

‘‘In the 1970s you had stomach stapling, then that went out of fashion. In the 1990s, early-2000, you had lap banding – and now the lap band has disappeared. Now we’re in the age of the lap sleeve.’’

Other types of bariatric treatments under development internationally involved different types of balloons inserted into the stomach – filled with gas or saline.

‘‘A balloon in the stomach or these Aspire devices – what happens in five or 10 years? Do they regain what they’ve lost?’’ .

Obesity is high on the agenda at the conference as the international medical world tackles burgeoning waistlines. Remedios said obesity was now responsible for more deaths than smoking.

New Zealand is ranked third in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s obesity stakes, behind the US and Mexico.

Thirty-two per cent of Kiwi adults are obese, as are one in nine children aged 14 and under, according to the Ministry of Health’s 2015/16 annual health survey.

In the most socio-economically deprived areas, obesity rates have climbed to 44 per cent in adults and 20 per cent in children.

Rachel Thomas attended the Brisbane conference courtesy of ANZCA.