Conservative therapy versus intra-gastric balloon in treatment of Prader-Willi Syndrome morbid obesity

Background and purposePrader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a complex multisystemic disorder characterized by hyperphagia, severe obesity and muscular hypotonia. So, it is essential to seek an ideal program to help in solving such a widespread problem. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of conservative therapy (diet and exercises) versus intra-gastric balloon in PWS patients. Ten children born with PWS from both sexes ranging in age from 8 to 15 years were assigned into two groups of equal number. Study group I received conservative therapy in the form of diet regimen (a low caloric diet) and aerobic exercises on a stationary bicycle while study group II underwent intra-gastric balloon. Evaluation procedures in the form of initial evaluation and measurement of Body mass index (BMI) and lipid profile parameters were conducted for each child of the two groups before and after 6 months of treatment. The results revealed no significant difference when comparing the pre-treatment mean values of the two study groups (I and II), while significant improvement was observed in all the measuring variables of the two groups when comparing their pre- and post-treatment mean values. Significant difference was also observed when comparing the post-treatment results of the two groups in favor of the study group I. It concluded that conservative therapy could be the first choice of treatment of PWS morbid obesity, while BioEnterics Intra-gastric balloon (BIB) came in the second choice.