Lap Band Weight Loss Surgery
Lap band weight loss surgery is in widespread use today and has become an
increasingly popular weight loss surgery choice for high BMI obesity patients.
This is part is because it has many health advantages over traditional forms of
bariatric or gastric bypass surgery.
Traditional gastric bypass surgery is designed to dramatically reduce the
size of the stomach by partitioning off a small section at the top of the
stomach using a series of staples and, at the same time, to bypass part of the
small intestine. This not only restricts the amount of food which a patient can
eat, but also reduces the number of calories which the body can absorb from that
food, so forcing the body to dip into its fat reserves and burn off stored fat
to produce weight loss.
By contrast, gastric lap band surgery (which is sometimes referred to simply
as lap band surgery or lap banding) merely reduced the size of the stomach by
placing an adjustable silicone band around the upper portion of the stomach and
achieves weight loss simply by restricting food intake. The lap band creates a
small pouch which holds anything up to about 50 ml, depending on your surgeon,
and the size of the newly created opening into the bulk of your normal 1,000 ml
stomach can be adjusted by injecting saline into the ring (or removing saline
from it) through a port which is placed just under your skin. In other words
your digestive system continues to work just as it has always done with the
single exception that the quantity of food which you can consume before you feel
full in considerably reduced.
Although banding surgery has been in use since 1985, the
term lap band surgery was coined in 1993 when the American company INAMED Health
designed the BioEntric ® LAP-BAND ® Adjustable Gastric Banding System and the
LAP-BAND ® system was first introduced in Europe. Adjustable lap band surgery
was granted FDA approval for use in the United States in 2001.
This means that weight loss can be slightly slower with lap band surgery
because you are able to extract the full calorific value from your food as it
passes through the intestine, but it also means that many of the problems and
complications which are associated with traditional surgery are avoided. This is
not to say that lap band surgery does not carry risks, but simply that the
complications seen are fewer and generally less severe. However, in the longer
term, patients can expect to lose similar amounts of weight and lap band surgery
will generally lead to a healthier eating regime (with a much wider range of
foods being available in the post-surgical diet) and enjoy better long-term
weight stability.
Lap banding is also favored by many patients because it requires a relatively
short stay in hospital which is followed by a fairly fast recovery. Some people
are up and walking around within an hour of their operation and it is not
uncommon for you to have the procedure in the morning and to return home late
the same day. Depending on your medical history and the type of work that you
do, you could also return to work within about 3 to 5 days.
Additionally, this form of surgery is fully reversible as there is no cutting
or stapling of the stomach and the procedure (which is often carried out
laparoscopically) gives rise to fewer complications. For many patients the fact
that the procedure is reversible can be extremely important. For example, if you
are a women and considering expanding your family then the band can be removed
in the event of pregnancy. Similarly, if the procedure does not produce the
results you want then it can again be reversed so that you can then opt for
another form of weight loss surgery.
Perhaps most importantly however for many people is the fact the mortality
rate is about 0.05% compared to approximately 0.5% in the case of the long
established and still widely used Roux-en-Y gastric bypass procedure. Although
mortality rates have fallen considerably in recent years in all forms of obesity
surgery (largely due to advances in the field of medicine) there is still a risk
of death and this is one risk which you really do want to have as low as
possible.
In the article section of this website we provide further information on lap
band surgery including the theory behind the procedure, how weight loss is
achieved in the months following surgery and the importance of having a good
support network in place to help you through what can be a very trying time.
The benefits and risks of lap bands at a
glance. |
Benefits |
Risks |
- A relatively safe operation with a low risk of serious complications.
- No stomach cutting or stapling.
- No alteration to the digestive tract.
- Can be adjusted to suit the needs of individual patients.
- Fully reversible.
- Minimal hospital stay and fast recovery.
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- Band slippage or leakage.
- Internal infection.
- Stomach pains from over-eating.
- Nutritional deficiencies while on an initial liquid diet.
- Reduced weight loss if you do not follow your post-operative diet and
exercise program.
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Here are just a few of our additional article resources:
Avera Medical Minute: LAP-BAND Surgery in Mitchell Live 3/09/10 - KSFY
9 Mar 2010 at 6:13pm
KSFY
Avera Medical Minute: LAP-BAND Surgery in Mitchell Live 3/09/10
KSFY
... to man with no success, you should know the LAP-BAND adjustable gastric banding system may be able to help start you down a path to a healthier life. ...
Avera Medical Minute: LAP-BAND Patient Loses 160 poundsKSFY
all 2 news articles »
Texas Public School Teachers to be denied access to Lap Band surgery - BigNew...
9 Mar 2010 at 10:24am
Texas Public School Teachers to be denied access to Lap Band surgery
BigNews.biz (press release)
Our program has been designated as a national Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence by the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) and ...
Lap-band promoters' troubled history - Sacramento Bee
9 Mar 2010 at 7:21am
Lap-band promoters' troubled history
Sacramento Bee
TopSurgeons attracts customers in part by pitching the lap-band to people who, according to conventional medical guidelines, shouldn't need major surgery to ...
and more »
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