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Adjustable Gastric Band Surgery
An alternative procedure that is enjoying a lot of success, we were the first in New England to try using this new device. The LAP-BAND® System is a silicone strip that looks and feels something like a flea collar and creates a bottleneck near the top of the stomach that will make it hard for a patient to overeat. It is adjustable and it is reversible.
The procedure is a minimally invasive surgery that involves placing a saline-filled tube (the LAP-BAND® Adjustable Gastric Banding System from Allergan, Inc.) around the stomach--creating a small gastric pouch.
 This adjustable gastric band is placed "laparoscopically" with the use of small incisions, thin surgical instruments, and a small internal camera that monitors the operation. Placed around the upper part of the stomach, the band creates a small "upper" stomach without cutting or stapling. This smaller stomach allows the patient to feel full sooner and stay full longer. As a result, the patient no longer feels the need to eat as much and, thus, loses weight.
FDA-approved, the band is a silicone elastomer ring filled with saline which is connected by a tube to a small reservoir placed beneath the skin during surgery. By adding or removing saline from the reservoir via a special fine needle, the band can be adjusted to allow more or less food to pass between the two parts of the stomach. The band tightening, which is called an adjustment, is performed in the office by injecting saline into the reservoir port with a thin needle through the skin and takes less than 5 minutes. The doctor can fine-tune the opening to best fit a patient's needs. The band can be tightened if the patient is not losing enough weight, or loosened if there is too much weight loss.
Advantages of the LAP-BAND® System include:
- Reduced surgical trauma and pain
- Less invasive for the abdominal wall (requires small incisions of 5 to10 millimeters) and for the stomach (no cutting or stapling of the organ is needed)
- Shorter hospitalization than standard surgery
- Respect of the anatomical and functional integrity of the stomach without by-passing portions of the stomach or intestines
- Individualized to the patient's needs via inflation or deflation of the band
- Procedure is reversible by removing the band
- Because the abdomen is not actually opened, operative risk is reduced as well as morbidity and patient discomfort
Having an adjustable gastric band procedure allows patients to alter their eating habits. Patients only need to eat very small meals, augmented with supplements, regular lab work. Lifetime follow-up is also an essential part of the treatment.
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