Lap Band Surgery

Lap Band surgery, also known as laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding, is a type of bariatric surgery, wherein an instrument called lap band is adjusted around the upper portion of the stomach to create a small pouch with limited capacity to store food, which helps the obese lose weight.

After the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Lap Band in February 2001, it has become quite popular. It is now being widely used by bariatric surgeons all over the world to help obese people lose weight.

Concept and Surgical Procedure

Lap Band is a hollow silicon band, which looks like a belt when wrapped around the stomach. The band is connected to an access port, which is fixed beneath the abdominal skin through a tube. This access port is used to adjust the band, when required, by adding saline solution to it through the port. The first filling of the band is usually undertaken following the patient’s full recovery after the surgery.

Lap Band surgery is a laparoscopic surgery, in which four to six small incisions are made in the abdomen. Through one of these incisions, a camera is inserted and through the other incisions, surgical instruments are inserted into the abdominal cavity.

Surgeons fit the lap band around the upper part of the stomach, thereby creating a small pouch. After the surgery, food consumed by the patient is stored in this pouch. Since the pouch is much smaller than the stomach, the amount of food that a patient can consume at a particular time reduces greatly. As a result, patient feels full quickly; hunger-inducing signals sent by the body to the brain are reduced significantly because of the lap band and the patient starts losing weight gradually.

Affordable Lap Band Surgery

Weight loss surgeries are gaining a lot of prominence because of the soaring obesity levels all over the world. With a spurt in the demand for bariatric surgeries, certain countries have emerged as centers of easy-on-the-pocket and high quality lap band and other bariatric surgeries. Healthcare systems in many developed countries are overburdened, and consequently lap band surgery in Mexico, India, Costa Rica, Jordan, and Belgium is quite popular.

Recommendations

Prior to the F.D.A approval, lap band was recommended only to patients with BMI of 40 or above or to patients suffering from co-morbidities of obesity within the BMI range of 35 to 40. But as per the F.D.A. approval, obesity patients with BMI ranging from 30 to 35 and with any one of the obesity related diseases like diabetes, hypertension can also undergo lap band surgery.

Only those people who are willing to give away unhealthy eating habits and are ready to accommodate some permanent changes in their lifestyle, which are very essential to obtain adequate and sustainable results from the surgery, make good candidates for lap banding. Patients who are addicted to drugs or alcohol and are not willing to switch to a healthy lifestyle are not the candidates for this weight loss surgery.

Benefits of Getting a Lap Band

• Biggest benefit of the lap band surgery is that it is a reversible procedure, as it does not make any permanent changes in the structure of the stomach.
• Lap band can be adjusted according to the weight loss requirements of the patient.
• Since it is a laparoscopic surgery, it involves less pain and the recovery time is quick.

Risks of Gastric Banding

• A patient might develop infection due to non-suitability of the band.
• In some cases, patients might experience band slippage.
• There is a probability of the band becoming very large, which can result in weight gain.
• One might also contract infection in the incisions made.
• In some cases, one might also suffer from band leakage.

Lap band surgery has its own benefits and risks, but compared to other bariatric surgeries, it is far less complicated and patients often recover quickly after the surgery. It is always a good idea to do thorough research on one’s own end before taking the plunge.

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