Key Highlights :
Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi conducted the first magnet-based procedure in the UAE to treat weight regain after sleeve gastrectomy.
The procedure employs rare earth magnets to establish a natural stomach-to-ileum connection without surgery and with minimal recovery time.
Patients are usually discharged home within 24 hours with minimal pain.
Key Background :
Obesity is a serious public health problem in the UAE and worldwide. Although one of the most prevalent bariatric procedures, sleeve gastrectomy is also still linked with dramatic weight regain in a subset of patients many years after and resultant need for treatment. Revision operation using standard protocols is successful but is challenging with high-risk, lengthy inpatient hospital stay, and added recovery expectations.
To circumvent these drawbacks, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi joined hands with GT Metedic in order to develop a magnet-anastomosis method that was less invasive and safer. When performed, during the procedure, a magnet is inserted in the ileum and another in the stomach. Over a series of weeks, the magnets will increasingly pull towards each other along a predetermined pathway down which food passes through some of the intestines and creates weight-loss effects similar to those created by more radical reworks involving surgery. The magnets will then take on a body pathway naturally once the bond has been established.
Hospital Digestive Disease Institute, led by Dr. John Rodriguez and Dr. Carlos Abril, was the first institution to effectively use this procedure. Their success is part of the tenth anniversary commemoration of the hospital and guarantees that the hospital continues to be a center of innovative bariatric treatments in the Middle East. More than 345 advanced bariatric procedures were performed by the institute alone in 2024, showing that there is an increasing requirement for new methods to address obesity.
Hospital authorities observe that obesity is a chronic condition with long-term and specialty treatment. With a non-operative, magnet-based procedure, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi brings hope to patients who are not candidates for or prefer not to have traditional revision surgery.
Since obesity rates increase around the area, the magnet treatment might be a good option for the limited number of patients that it can help. More trials and studies will continue to develop the process with the hope of making it more cost-effective and beneficial to those who regain weight after surgery.
About the Author
Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith is a Managing Editor at World Care Magazine.