Follow up
After balloon placement, patients remained in the recovery room for one to two hours until complete recovery from sedation and were then discharge. Instructions were provided for a five-day liquid diet (with progressive increase in ingested volume). On the sixth day, a semi-solid diet was prescribed and, after the thirteenth day solids were introduced into a diet of 1,200-kcal/day. Patients were then referred for personalized nutritional counseling, when an individual diet was prescribed with a range of 10-15 kcal/kg/day. All the patients were followed up by a multidisciplinary team with scheduled medical, nutritional and psychological appointments at least 15, 30, 60, 90, 120 and 150 days after balloon placement.
In the first three days after balloon insertion, patients were instructed to use three antiemetic drugs (metoclopramide, ondansetron and dimenhydrinate), an anti-foaming drug (dimethicone), and analgesics/antispasmodics (escopolamine plus dypirone, acetaminophen). All the patients were put on a proton pump inhibitor (pantoprazole magnesium) throughout the treatment: a double dose in the first month (80mg) and a full dose from the second month to the end (40mg). Additionally, vitamin and mineral supplementation and probiotics (Lactobacillus acidophilus LA 16) were given to all the patients throughout the treatment.