Saturday 6 June 2009

Ever heard of the “EasyBand”?

This is a TAGB - a Telemetric Adjustable Gastric Band - available in the UK under the brand name EasyBand.
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I'm certainly not advertising it of course, as I know nothing about it other than what I found out this week by Googling, but in principle it sounds like the best of all worlds. There are no fills, everything is done by remote control - I attach some blurb I found below.
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My own comment: surely it's therefore just a matter of time before they make one which we can control ourselves with our own remote? Imagine that - with a zap you loosen it a bit if you're uncomfortable or you want to enjoy eating out without restriction, then another zap and you're back on the straight and narrow.... I feel like Mr Toad in the children's book Wind in the Willows, who as Toad of Toad Hall is a rich landowner, always on the lookout for a new vehicle that's smarter and faster... (parp parp!)
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"A remotely controllable gastric banding device for placement around the stomach of a patient for the treatment of obesity. The device comprises a gastric band having an inflatable chamber for adjusting the inner circumference of the band, a pressurized reservoir with a valve for providing fluid to inflate the inflation chamber, a valve for releasing fluid from the inflatable chamber, and a controller for controlling the valves. The controller is remotely controllable from outside the patient.
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The new band - the EasyBand - is adjusted electronically. It consists of a silicone tube containing a metal loop instead of salt water. The tube also has a computer chip linked to a tiny motor (the size of a 10p piece).
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Once the band is in place, a wire attached to it is fed up through the body and into the chest. On the end of the wire is a tiny receiver, which sits just underneath the skin by the breastbone.
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To tighten EasyBand, a doctor presses a button on the handheld gadget. This sends a signal down a wire to a transmitter placed on the patient's chest.
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The signal is picked up by the receiver implanted in the body and forwarded to the microchip. The chip activates a miniature engine that tightens the band and reduces the size of the stomach.
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Information on the band's diameter is beamed back to the control unit, allowing the doctor to control any changes."
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-oOo-

3 comments:

Tina said...

I don't love fills so this method might be nice to save us all of the poking and prodding. I do not think it would be wise, though, to let us ever control it ourselves. I don't trust my self-control any more than I do my self-control on any other diet. Heck-i would be opening and closing the thing weekly for a burger...I think having some distance between my doctor filled lapband and myself is a good thing. I would however, love it if he could fill me up more easily or better yet have the nurse be able to do it so I was not at his mercy (he goes out of town wayyyy to often for me).

So are they putting them in yet? or is this one of those in development things?

Tina

Dawn said...

How cool!!!

I'm not sure if I would want one either as I would be the same as Tina... filling and unfilling for the sake of a burger...LOL

:o)
xx

Unknown said...

Thank you very much for your very nice comment on my blog.
Good luck and best wishes to you!
Simone :)

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