A new, less extreme alternative to gastric band surgery has been developed – an implant that blocks the feeling of being hungry.

Just weeks after Fern Britton announced that she had a Gastric Band fitted to help her lose weight, scientists say they have developed new technology that could be the answer for people who simply can’t lose their unhealthy excess baggage.

They studied 31 obese people, who each received the device, which is implanted in the stomach and blocks the feeling of being hungry. They lost an average of nearly 15 percent of their excess weight; a quarter of the participants lost more than 25 percent, and three patients lost more than 30 percent.

Gastroenterologist and researcher Dr Michael Camilleri says the goal was to find a less drastic alternative to bariatric surgery that would still yield significant weight loss.

Bariatric surgery techniques include "banding" - placement of a band around the top part of the stomach to reduce its capacity - or bypass procedures which reroute food and remove part of the stomach.

"Patients were not put on any restricted diets or given counselling that typically accompanies gastric banding or bypass. We wanted to determine how much weight loss could be attributed to the device alone," said Camilleri.

The “VBLOC therapy” is similar to a heart pacemaker, but instead of stimulating a regular heartbeat, it uses high-frequency electricity to block the nerve impulses between the brain and the stomach and pancreas. The patient flips a switch to activate the device so that the blocking signal can influence how the stomach functions and food is digested following a meal.

Lead wires are implanted in the stomach, and a pacemaker-sized device is implanted just under the skin.

And while gastric bypass surgery involves removing portions of the digestive tract and rerouting the flow of food and, therefore, is not reversible, the VBLOC delivery system can be removed, and studies have indicated that it does not damage or permanently affect the nerves. Plus with VBLOC, there is no distortion of digestive system anatomy as is the case with both gastric bypass and gastric banding, and to date there have been no significant issues related to food intolerance, nausea or vomiting as is common with both bypass and banding.

Camilleri says a follow-up trial has already been launched gauging the device's true effectiveness before it’s released for public use.

"In a study such as the one being published this month, there is always potential for the device to 'work' because patients believe it will," he explains. "In the next study, which has already begun, all patients will have the device implanted, but one-third will not have it turned on during the first year of the study, so that after meals, it won't be blocking the nerve signals; this is called 'sham' treatment. Neither the patients nor their doctors will know whether the blocking signals are going through or not. This "pivotal" study will tell us whether a placebo effect is responsible for some of the weight loss.”