A Review of Past and Present Weight Loss Strategies and the Potential Role of Bariatric Arterial Embolization

The obesity epidemic is a growing public health concern that has a severe effect on the health care system with significant morbidity, mortality, and cost. Treatment options for obesity include lifestyle modifications, pharmacotherapy, and bariatric surgery. Newer, less-invasive therapies including endoscopic bariatric procedures have been developed in recent years to fill the treatment gap that exists between noninvasive approaches and surgery. Bariatric artery embolization (BAE) is a novel minimally invasive endovascular procedure that has been developed to treat obesity. Recent evidence has suggested that bariatric embolization is well tolerated and can induce clinically significant weight loss through a hormonally mediated mechanism. This article will review existing preclinical and clinical data, and explore future directions of the endovascular treatment of obesity.