[Minimally invasive emergent techniques in obesity treatment]

Obesity is a chronic disease for which several modalities of treatment are investigated today. One of them is the set of minimally aggressive techniques that have been added to the intragastric balloon.

To review the minimally invasive techniques described in the last years for the treatment of obesity.

It consisted in reviewing the bibliography through the habitual finders, in addition to the obtained data of the companies. They are classified in restrictive and malabsortive, and the restrictive are divides in mechanical or functional restriction.

Between mechanical restrictive the classified as we included in the restrictive emergent techniques the adjustable intragastric balloon, the intragastric prosthesis, the vertical endoluminal gastroplasty and the transoral gastroplasty. In order to obtain a functional restriction, we have the gastric pacemaker and the botulinic toxin. And finally, the endoluminal duodenojejunal bypass is described as a malabsortive technique.

With less than 10 years of existence, it seems that the described techniques compensate their smaller effectiveness compared to the surgical techniques, with the absence of substantial modifications in the anatomy of the alimentary tract. None of these techniques is free of risks and complications.