Some facts about lap band surgery

FDA approved lap band system use in the US in June 2001.  Adjustable gastric band or the lap band surgery procedure is performed with laparoscopic instruments and it is used in serious desperate situations. It is a kind of restrictive weight loss surgery that has been designed for obesity patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or more, or between 35 and 40.

For having lap band surgery, pain intolerance to implanted devices as well allergic reactions to materials in the band are both contraindications. People between ages 18 and 55 years are eligible of it, but many doctors are working outside these ages. If severe cardiopulmonary diseases or other conditions which make patients poor surgical candidates exist, this surgery is not a good idea.

Similarly, if the patients have some untreated glandular disease like hypothyroidism (low thyroid), this surgery is not usually performed.

The adjustable gastric band is placed while making a small pouch at the very top of the stomach and it holds almost 50ml. When you eat something, this developed pouch fills quickly and the passage of the food from the top to the bottom of the stomach gets slowed.

The finite keyhole laparoscopic surgery is used to place the adjustable gastric band or lap band which is an inflatable silicone prosthetic apparatus. The traditional malabsorptive weight loss surgery tends to cut into or remove a part of the digestive system, but it doesn’t happen when placing gastric band. In lap band surgeries, none of the intestines are removed, re-routed or cut out and that’s why the reported gastric dumping syndrome issues do not occur.

After that surgery, the patient must eat less and eat slowly and chew food thoroughly. Though the initial weight loss in gastric banding surgery is somewhat slower than Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery, data suggests that there are similar weight loss results during a five-year-period.

It can happen with any surgical weight loss procedure when the patients begin to regain weight and even the radical procedures that results in a rapid weight loss following surgery have no exception in this connection. Usually the amount of weight a patient lost following surgery depends on his/her personal situation, mobility and motivation.