Complications from Lapband Surgery

The lapband is a restrictive procedure that was approved by the US FDA in June 2001. The procedure has been widely used in Europe and Australia since 1993. The silicone elastomer of which the device is made has been proven safe.

In this procedure, the lapband is fastened around the upper part of the stomach in order to create a tiny pouch. It is then connected to an area (access port) below the skin surface using then, kink-resistant silicone tubing. The purpose of the port is to allow the surgeon to adjust the size of the lapband in order to meet the individual weight loss needs of the patient by adding or removing saline. Adding or removing saline for the purpose of inflating or deflating the band determines the amount and consumption rate of the food that is consumed. The weight loss goal is 1-3 pounds a week with adjustments to the band being determined by the patient's weight loss, how much food the patient can comfortably eat, the exercise plan, and other issues that surround the health of the individual patient as well as the amount of fluid that is already in the band worn by the patient. The band lets patients experience an earlier sensation of fullness, and is therefore, satisfied with smaller meals.

The lapband procedure requires no cutting, stapling, or stomach rerouting, and is therefore considered the least traumatic of the weight loss surgeries. Five or six tiny incisions are made to implant the device using long, slender instruments. Avoidance of the large incision used with open surgery helps patients experience less pain as scarring, shortening the hospital stay to the area of twenty-four to forty-eight hours or less. Normal activities can usually be resumed with one week, and because no permanent changes are made as the result of the procedure, it can re reversed. If it becomes necessary, all of the components can be removed from the patient's body without any damage being done to the digestive organs. Eventually the stomach will return to its original form and capacity.

A patient should be aware before undergoing this bariatric procedure of some long and short-term complications. Some of these complications include gastric perforation, slippage of the band, failure of the band device, dilation of the esophagus and others. The mortality rate for this procedure is less than .1%, much less than that of more invasive procedures such as gastric bypass surgery.