Article by Panagiotis Glentis MD, Bariatric Surgery.
Laparoscopic Gastric Banding – Lap Band
Gastric banding is one of the less invasive techniques among weight loss operations.
Gastric banding achieves weight loss, lowering the amount of food that the patient can consume.
From 1993 this operation has been performed in many hundreds of thousands of patients around the whole world.
The surgeon can very easily control the pace of weight loss, arranging the diameter of the band with a small painless injection under the skin of the abdominal wall.
Gastric band can very easily removed, with the same ease that it can be induced.
The morbidity of this operation is very low.
Technique
Gastric band is inserted laparoscopically or robotically with three or four small incisions in the abdominal wall, 0,5 cm in diameter.
The band is placed around the upper part of the stomach, and makes a gastric pouch that has a volume capacity of 15-20 cc.
The band is secured there with special laparoscopic stitches and the stomach takes the shape of a hourglass. The upper compartment of this hourglass is very smaller in comparison to the lower compartment, which is the rest of the stomach.
Why choose laparoscopic gastric banding
Gastric banding has a lot of advantages, which are:
Short operative time
This procedure is done laparoscopically or robotically and it has a very short operative time, approximately one hour.
Short hospitalization
Most of the patients, stay one day in the hospital.
No post-operative pain due to the laparoscopic or robotic procedure
There is a very mild post-operative pain after the operation, due to the minimal invasive way, in which we perform the procedure.
Very low risk for post-operative complications
Because of the minimal invasive way this operation is done, there is a very low risk for complications after surgery.
Very quick return to everyday activities and work
After gastric banding, the patient can return immediately to work and every day activities.
This makes it possible for us to arrange if you like, a supplementary vacation package in some of our beautiful destinations in Greece, before you return back home.
Easy arrangement of the diameter of the band
Immediately after the operation, we leave the band open without inflating it. After a few days we make the first arrangment of the band, making smaller its diameter, so that the patient has very quickly the satiety sensation after eating small amounts of food.
Most often we don’t have to perform a second arrangement of the ring, but if this is needed, it can very easily be done even after you return back home by a local doctor.
The arrangement of the band diameter is important, so that we can obtain constantly adequate weight loss.
During pregnancy, we can easily arrange the band, so that the woman takes all the food she needs to support her normal embryo development.
Basic disadvantages of gastric banding is that we leave a foreign body in the organism and the patient has to follow certain dietary orders so that we can achieve the best weight loss results without any problems.
Panagiotis Glentis
Bariatric Surgeon – certified under the EAES (European Association for Endoscopic Surgery) in the fields of Upper & Lower GI Laparoscopic Surgery and Laparoscopic Bariatric Surgery.
Dr. Glentis operates at Bioclinic Athens