Is Intragastric Botulinum Toxin A Injection Effective in Obesity Treatment?

Abstract

Aims . The objective of this prospective study was to evaluate the efficacy of intragastric botulinum toxin A (BTX-A) injection for the treatment of obesity. Materials and Methods . The study was performed between January and August 2019. This is a prospective study. After 6–12 hours of fasting, the patients were submitted to upper GI endoscopy under sedation for the injection of BTX-A. A total of 250 U of BTA-X was diluted with 10 ml of 0.9% saline. Injections were administered into the gastric antrum, each containing 1 ml of prepared solution (25 U BX-A + 1 ml saline). Continuous data were compared using a two-sample t -test. Statistical significance was determined as <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"><mml:mi>P</mml:mi><mml:mo>≤</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.05</mml:mn></mml:math>. All statistical analysis was performed using SPSS for Windows 22.1 software (SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA). Results . A total of 56 patients were studied. Mean weight before gastric Botox was 85.25 ± 14.02, and mean weight after gastric Botox was 76.98 ± 12.68. Mean weight loss was approximately 9 kg in studied patients. BMI decreased about 3 units. The mean time for maximum weight loss was 60.39 ± 37.43 days. A total of 49 patients (87.5%) had reported decrease in appetite and early satiety. About 53.6% of patients were satisfied. No complications resulting from the endoscopic procedure were observed in this series. Conclusions . Intragastric BTX-A injection can be beneficial in weight loss. It is a minimally invasive, cost-effective procedure, without serious side effects.