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301-714-4044 or
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Scot Currie, DO
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Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding: A Restrictive Procedure
When diets don’t work, a surgical weight loss procedure can provide new hope for improved health and quality of life.
The laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding procedure is a surgical procedure based on restricting the patient’s food intake while helping the patient feel full faster and longer. The surgeon places a band around the uppermost part of the stomach; after surgery, the band is injected with saline solutions so that it squeezes the stomach, dividing it into two portions: one small and one larger. When the patient eats, the food quickly fills the smaller portion of the stomach, tricking the body so that it feels full faster.
As the name indicates, the band is adjustable. So if the rate of weight loss is not acceptable, the band can be adjusted to make the stomach feel smaller or larger. Food digestion happens through normal digestion.
Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding is a minimally invasive procedure, so there are just a few small incisions used by the surgeon to view the stomach and to manipulate the gastric band into position. The procedure has been safely used outside the U.S. for more than a decade, and has now been FDA-approved for use in the U.S.
Advantages
- A 2004 meta-analysis of more than 22,000 patients showed that those who underwent a bariatric surgical procedure experienced complete resolution or improvement of their co-morbid conditions including diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and obstructive sleep apnea.16
- 47.9 percent of type 2 diabetes cases were resolved.3
- Significant improvements in overall cholesterol occurred, including a boost in HDL levels.3
- 70.8 percent of hypertension cases were resolved or improved.3
- Patients lost roughly 47 percent of their excess weight.3
- The amount of food that could be consumed at a meal was restricted.
- Food passed through the digestive tract in the usual order, allowing it to be absorbed fully by the body.
- In studies involving more than 3,000 patients, excess weight loss ranged from 28 to 87 percent, with a minimum of two-year postoperative follow-up.3
- Band can be adjusted to increase or decrease restriction via an access port.
- Surgery can be reversed.
Risks and Disadvantages
- The access port may leak or twist, which can require an operation to correct the problem.
- Surgery may not provide the necessary feeling of satisfaction that one has had enough to eat.
- Dumping syndrome, which may provide important warning signs, does not occur.
- Band may erode into the stomach wall.
- Band may move or slip.
- Weight loss is slower than that following Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery.
- The procedure could result in death.
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