Intragastric balloons for obesity: critical review of device design, efficacy, tolerability and unmet clinical needs.

Several intragastric balloons were developed over the years that brought excitement to patients and healthcare professionals alike. Albeit good efficacy, there had been several safety issues reported with IGBs such as spontaneous deflation (premature balloon rupture), intestinal occlusion, gut perforation, and mucosal ulcerations. This led to evolution of IGBs design; device material, filling mechanism and fluid type, inflation volume, and further innovations to ease ingestion and removal of device. There are some IGB devices under development aimed to swallow like a conventional pill and excrete naturally through defecation following biodegradation in gut lumen, however, how successful they will be in clinical practice in terms of their efficacy and tolerability remains to be seen in the future.