vagal blocking - VBLOC Maestro system

Hello!

I'm new here and have been reviewing surgical and non-surgical weight loss options. I recently came across this Robin Roberts presentation on WebMD. They mention a vagal blocking, pacemaker-like device that controls hunger with much less invasive and reversible surgery. The person in the video interview has lost quite a bit of weight and has not had to dramatically alter her lifestyle.

http://www.webmd.com/news/breaking-news/future-of-health/#obesity-treatment-toc/advances-in-obesity-treatment

Has anyone here tried this device? Comments would be appreciated.

Thank you!

I think this is still in testing phase and not available to the general public. I had a lap band and I tell I will never let anyone mess with my vegus nerve again! It is so easily damaged and then you are left with life long nerve damage. All it takes is one wrong move and you are in for a life time of suffering like I have and so man others. No more being a guinea pig for me!

I can't open this link but assume it is the technique which is in the experimental stage over here. My own doctor is actually trialling it.  I understand it was approved for use in the U.S. in the last few months.

As Hislady says, one of the potential complications of lap banding is damage to the vagus nerve. I wouid assume that this risk has been factored in - it talks of blocking, not putting pressure on the nerve. 

It sounds as if there might be possibilities! But I wouid personally want to find out exactiy what it did to the vagus nerve. 

You do NOT want damage to your Vagus nerve system. The Lap Band damaged my Vagus nerves and diaphragm (the nerves run through the diaphragm into the top portion of the stomach.) I can't even fully recount the effects... referred left shoulder pain-severe; "machine gun sneezing;" breathing issues... just to name a few. The Vagus nerves control so many functions in the body. There's no way that this vagal blocker device will be a good idea. The more those nerves get irritated, the more likely they are to be damaged permanently. This device has the potential to be very damaging. Especially if you have a medical professional who doesn't know what he or she is doing. (And there are always medical "professionals" who see money making opportunities and take them.) 

The FDA approved this device just a couple of months ago. The various trials before approval resulted in an average excess weight loss of only 10%. That's excess weight, not total weight. There's no way I would have surgery for only 10 percent loss.

The thing that really worries me about your description is that The person in the video interview has lost quite a bit of weight and has not had to dramatically alter her lifestyle.

There is NO WAY to lose a large amount of weight without drastically altering your lifestyle. There is no surgery, procedure, pill, plan, or diet that allows you to continue your previous lifestyle. Whatever you end up doing, please wrap your head around that first.

Yeah - I'm past 10% of my excess weight loss at just under four weeks out from VSG. Definitely not worth it if this is all I were expected to lose. (I was 10 lbs shy of 10% of total body weight lost on Wed at the doctor - even that wouldn't have been worth it to me.) 

And while it would be nice to be able to eat like it's my job and not be SMO, that isn't life. There's no magic solution. 

I have a different take on the new device.  Medical professionals have been safely implanting electrodes and stimulating nerves for decades - even in critical applications like the nerves inside the heart.   I don't have a problem with the idea of electrically stimulating the nerve pathway between my stomach and my brain.  But the mediocre weight loss makes me think they have yet to figure out the optimal parameters for the stimulation. I'll be keeping my eye on this device. It may turn out to something good once they've done more work on it.

You're right, it might end up leading to something very worthwhile. But right now, it's not.

There have been a lot of experimental weight loss surgeries, and outside of the three commonly done today, they have all had poor results and horrid complications. Someone else can be the gunny pig. 

Thank you for all the helpful comments. The information I found is very different from the 10% excess weight loss you mention. The FDA website says that, "After 12 months, the average excess weight loss in the VBLOC group was 24.4 ± 23.6% (an average of 24.14 pounds)."

This information can be found at: http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/ProductsandMedicalProcedures/DeviceApprovalsandClearances/Recently-ApprovedDevices/ucm430696.htm

Also, agree that great care needs to be taken around the vagus nerve, but there are no side effects I found that listed any damage to the vagus nerve during the trials

Here is another summary of the FDA findings that makes me feel that this is a pretty good alternative to those who haven't had success with pills, but aren't ready for anatomy altering surgery:

The finding that over 50% of the VBLOC Group subjects achieved at least a 20% EWL also shows that this device is likely to be clinically effective. Finally, the adverse event profile for the MAESTERO® Rechargeable System is consistent with a demonstration of device safety, with only a small number of SAEs which were primarily related to discomfort at the neuroregulator site. The supplemental data provided by EnteroMedics, Inc. for the 12 to 18 month interval shows that the weight loss in the VBLOC treated subjects is durable through that time frame. Overall, there is little change in the prevalence of adverse events between the 12 month and cumulative 18 month data. In conclusion, the benefit-risk model profile favors the approval of this device.

I would like to hear more comments from any others who have tried this or who have comments about this informaiton. It looks like they will be starting surgeries soon and they have a webinar to discuss the procedure with candidates and doctors.

I am on the fence about this simply because it is so new.  Someone has to be among the first for new techniques and if I were facing death or severe debility, I wouid take any experimental surgery going. But unless you have major issues, obesity does not come into that category. 

But weight loss surgery has a history of failed experiments. Jaw wiring seemed brilliant until people found they lost their teeth through decay - and, of course, regsined all their weight as soon as the wires were removed! The Molina band seemed great until after 10 or 15 years people found the mesh had become absorbed into tissue and caused very severe, irreversible damage. Various stapling techniques seemed great until it was discovered that they weren't!  The adjustable lapband seemed a miracle - for me personally, it still is!

But when I was banded in 2006, although it had been in use in the same form for a number of years, almost none of the problems we now know about were recorded. We were warned of a 5% slip rate, a 1% erosion rate and promised total reversibility. No-one, doctors included, knew of the risk of severe vagal nerve damage, the common over-growth of scar tissue, oesophageal dysmotility and the fact that removal does not necessarily reverse damage.

Don't get me wrong, I love my band and don't regret it.  So for me, if all that info had been available and I had been frightened off, it would have been a shame!  But my point is, NO-ONE knew. And that was after the band had been in use in various forms for over 10 years.

And it is quite simply untrue to say that you can lose weight without changing your life! Most obese people do not eat because they are hungry, so dimming hunger helps but that is all it does - help! We all, in different ways, work at losing weight. Banded people can eat all foods and can physically eat a lot! RNY people have early malabsorption but that decreases and they can still eat round their surgery. VSG people could, if they chose, live on high calorie foods, even DSers could gain weight from inappropriate eating of carbs and, for example, alcohol. 

This vagal nerve stimulation is basically working on the principle that people used to believe was the outcome of the band, stimulating the vagus nerve to mimic satiety, it is incidentally now understood this is not how the band works! But that Is irrelevant. The point is, it is closest in effect to the band. Believe me, the failure rate in terms of banded people who simply cannot lose enough or can't retain that loss is very high. This is one reason for the high level of band complications - some people find they are still over-eating so they keep their band too tight and so cause severe problems. That is, not feeling hungry is simply not enough.

obviously you will do your own research and make your own decision.  But do be careful!