The first obesity surgery training and treatment center in the Asia Pacific region has been established in Shanghai, bringing hopes for body shaping to about 39 million seriously overweight Chinese.

Zheng Chengzhu, director of the center, said at the center's inauguration on Monday that the hospital would introduce the gastric banding method to create a small pouch in the upper part of the stomach with an adjustable stoma so as to limit food intakefor obese people.

He explained that this surgery would help patients avoid weight-rebound and have no side effects for the stomach.

Experts consider gastric banding to be one of the simplest and safest obesity surgery methods. It can lead to a 30 to 40 percent weight loss one year after the operation, and 50 to 60 percent after three years. It has become a priority choice for obesity treatment in about 40 countries.

(Xinhua News Agency January 18, 2006)