Gastric Botox Therapy

Stomach bypass surgery is increasingly popular as a treatment for morbid obesity, in part because it is the only surgical procedure proven to cause weigh loss in extremely obese people. There are many downsides. One is that the post-operative patient must adhere to an exceptionally restricted diet, with serious complications if he or she does not. Also, the procedure is major surgery, possibly not appropriate for patients in poor health; and reversal of the procedure also requires major surgery. Most serious, the mortality rate is about one patient out of 200.

As an alternative I propose Gastric Botox Therapy, wherein small doses of botulism toxin are used to partially paralyze the muscles of the stomach. The injections are carried out endoscopically through the esophagus. Each treatment is effective for about one month, so repeated treatments are necessary. However, this allows the amount of paralysis to be scaled to the patients indicated weight-loss rate, and it make possible cessation of the treatment without surgery.

The partially-paralyzed stomach will have much-reduced capacity for digesting food, forcing the patient to eat less and to lose weight as a consequence.

Note that Gastric Botox Therapy is not intended for normal weight loss. Like stomach bypass surgery, it is only appropriate for patients who are extremely obese and are at serious risk secondary morbidity or death as a result.