Abdulla M, Mohammed N, AlQamish J, Arau RT. Efficacy and safety of endoscopic gastroplasty for treatment of obesity: An overview of comparative meta-analyses. World J Gastrointest Endosc 2025; 17(5): 105158 [DOI: 10.4253/wjge.v17.i5.105158]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Maheeba Abdulla, MD, Department of Internal Medicine, Ibn Al Nafees Hospital, PO Box 54533, Manama 54533, Bahrain. amaheeba@hotmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Systematic Reviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Endosc. May 16, 2025; 17(5): 105158 Published online May 16, 2025. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v17.i5.105158
Efficacy and safety of endoscopic gastroplasty for treatment of obesity: An overview of comparative meta-analyses
Maheeba Abdulla, Nafeesa Mohammed, Jehad AlQamish, Román Turró Arau
Maheeba Abdulla, Jehad AlQamish, Department of Internal Medicine, Ibn Al Nafees Hospital, Manama 54533, Bahrain
Nafeesa Mohammed, Department of Intensive Care Unit, Salmaniya Medical Complex, Manama 5616, Bahrain
Román Turró Arau, Centro Medico Teknon, 08022, Barcelona, Spain
Author contributions: All authors contributed to the study conception and design; Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Abdulla M, Mohammed N, and AlQamish J; The first draft of the manuscript was written by Abdulla M; all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Maheeba Abdulla, MD, Department of Internal Medicine, Ibn Al Nafees Hospital, PO Box 54533, Manama 54533, Bahrain. amaheeba@hotmail.com
Received: January 14, 2025 Revised: March 10, 2025 Accepted: April 22, 2025 Published online: May 16, 2025 Processing time: 119 Days and 0.3 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
There is a scarcity of evidence and systematic reviews on endoscopic gastroplasty (EG) compared to other management options for the treatment of obesity.
AIM
To assess the published meta-analyses through a systematic review approach and provide further insight into the current status of available evidence through a critical appraisal.
METHODS
PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Embase and Cochrane Library were searched from inception to November 2022. The meta-analyses that compared the efficacy and safety of EG to other interventions were considered for this overview. The outcomes of interest were total body weight loss (TBWL), excessive weight loss, and average weight loss along with occurrence of adverse effects. Methodological quality, heterogeneity, and limitations were also reviewed.
RESULTS
A total of six meta-analyses out of 364 records were considered for this review with a major contribution from the United States. Overall methodological quality of included studies were moderate to good. EG treatments were significantly better in terms of TBWL, excessive weight loss, and average weight loss. However, there was no significant difference between endoscopic transoral outlet reduction and full-thickness suturing plus argon plasma mucosal coagulation. Lack of comparative studies and randomized trials, lack of long-term follow-up, reporting bias, selection bias, lack of control groups, and considerable level of heterogeneity were the major limitations in the available evidence.
CONCLUSION
Though EG was significantly effective for treatment of obesity, there is limited comparative evidence on this topic. High-quality well-controlled evidence is required to strengthen the current evidence base on EG treatment for obesity.
Core Tip: Endoscopic gastroplasty treatments were significantly better in reducing total body weight, excessive weight, and average weight among obese population. No significant difference between endoscopic transoral outlet reduction and full-thickness suturing plus argon plasma mucosal coagulation. Lack of comparative, long-term follow-up and randomized studies, reporting and selection bias, high level of heterogeneity were the major limitations in the currently available meta-analyses.
