Healthy, Normal Lifestyle
Patients can eat and drink normal amounts and types of food with the AspireAssist. Although patients will learn healthier behaviors over time with lifestyle counseling, no sudden diet changes are required to achieve weight loss.
Reversible
The AspireAssist can be removed, at any time, through a 15-minute outpatient procedure. It is performed under conscious sedation.
Affordable
Because the procedure and device are relatively simple, the AspireAssist may be affordable for patients who cannot afford bariatric surgery.
How it Works
The AspireAssist works by reducing the calories absorbed by the body. After eating, food travels to the stomach immediately, where it is temporarily stored and the digestion process begins. Over the first hour after a meal, the stomach begins breaking down the food, and then passes the food on to the intestines, where calories are absorbed. The AspireAssist allows patients to remove about 30% of the food from the stomach before the calories are absorbed into the body, causing weight loss.
Simple Procedure
The A-Tube is placed during a 20-minute outpatient procedure. Patients can usually return home within one to two hours, and many return to work very quickly compared to invasive bariatric surgeries. A-Tube installation does not require general anesthesia, and instead is performed under conscious sedation, which is used during many dental procedures. The procedure is very similar to the routine placement of PEG tubes. For the past 30 years, PEG tubes have been used for long-term feeding for people who cannot obtain adequate nutrition orally.
Like the placement of a PEG tube, the A-Tube is inserted through the mouth by using an endoscope. Only a very small (1-cm) skin incision is needed to pull the A-Tube through the surface of the skin from the stomach.
After the skin has healed around the tube (about 10 days), the physician will attach a Skin-Port to the end of the A-Tube outside the body. This takes about 5 minutes and can be done in the doctor’s office. Once the Skin-Port is installed, the patient can begin aspirating and losing weight immediately.