LAP-BAND® System Procedure

The LAP-BAND® System is an adjustable gastric band designed to help you lose excess body weight, improve weight-related health conditions and enhance your quality of life. It reduces the stomach capacity and restricts the amount of food that can be consumed at one time. The LAP-BAND® System procedure does not require a stomach cutting, stapling or gastrointestinal re-routing to bypass normal digestion.

The LAP-BAND® System is an adjustable gastric band designed to help you lose excess body weight, improve weight-related health conditions and enhance your quality of life. It reduces the stomach capacity and restricts the amount of food that can be consumed at one time. The LAP-BAND® System procedure does not require a stomach cutting, stapling or gastrointestinal re-routing to bypass normal digestion. There are three main types of surgery used to treat obesity, malabsorptive, restrictive, and combined. Of these, the adjustable and completely reversible LAP-BAND® System is the safest procedure available with the least complications. It is the first surgically implantable weight loss device approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with over 250,000 devices successfully placed worldwide.

For a discussion of the various surgeries used to treat obesity, see our page on Weight Loss Surgeries Compared

The name "LAP-BAND® System" comes from the surgical technique used, laparoscopic, and the name of the implanted medical device, gastric band. The LAP-BAND® System is a silicone ring designed to be placed around the upper part of the stomach and filled with saline on its inner surface. This creates a new, smaller stomach pouch that can hold only a small amount of food, so the food storage area in the stomach is reduced. The band also controls the stoma (stomach outlet) between the new upper pouch and the lower part of the stomach. When the stomach is smaller, you feel full faster, while the food moves more slowly between your upper and lower stomach as it is digested. As a result, you eat less and lose weight.

The Minimally Invasive Procedure
During the procedure, surgeons usually use laparoscopic techniques (making tiny incisions rather than a large incision and inserting long-shafted instruments through "ports"), to wrap the LAP-BAN® System around the patient's stomach. A narrow camera is passed through a port so the surgeon can view the operative site on a nearby video monitor. Like a wristwatch, the band is fastened around the upper stomach to create the new stomach pouch that limits and controls the amount of food you eat. The band is then locked securely in a ring around the stomach.

Since there is no stomach cutting, stapling, or gastrointestinal re-routing involved in the LAP-BAND® System procedure, it is considered the safest, least invasive, and least traumatic of all weight-loss surgeries. The laparoscopic approach to the surgery also has the advantages of reduced post-operative pain, shortened hospital stay, and quicker recovery. If for any reason the LAP-BAND® System needs to be removed, the stomach generally returns to its original form.

Adjustable Weight Loss
Once placed around the stomach, tubing connects the LAP-BAND® System to an access port fixed beneath the skin of your abdomen. This allows the surgeon to change the stoma (stomach outlet) size by adding or subtracting saline, or salt water, inside the inner balloon through the access port. This adjustment process helps determine the rate of weight loss. If the band is too loose and weight loss is inadequate, adding more saline can reduce the size of the stoma to further restrict the amount of food that can move through it. If the band is too tight, the surgeon will remove some saline to loosen the band and reduce the amount of restriction.

The diameter of the band can be modified to meet your individual needs, which can change as you lose weight. For example, pregnant patients can expand their band to accommodate a growing fetus, while patients who aren't experiencing significant weight loss can have their bands tightened.



The LAP-BAND® System Advantages at a Glance

Minimal Trauma

• Least invasive surgical option
• No intestinal re-routing
• No cutting or stapling of the stomach wall or bowel
• Small incisions and minimal scarring
• Reduced patient pain, length of hospital stay and recovery period

Fewer Risks and Side Effects

• 10 times less operative and short-term mortality than gastric bypass¹
• Low risk of nutritional deficiencies associated with gastric bypass
• Reduced risk of hair loss
• No "dumping syndrome" related to dietary intake restrictions

Adjustable

• Allows individualized degree of restriction for ideal rate of weight-loss
• Adjustments performed without additional surgery
• Supports pregnancy by allowing stomach outlet size to be opened to accommodate increased nutritional needs
• Only surgical option designed to help maintain long-term weight loss

Reversible

• Removable at any time
• Stomach and other anatomy are generally restored to their original forms and functions

Effective Long-Term Weight Loss

• More than 300,000 LAP-BAND® System devices placed worldwide
• Standard of care for hundreds of surgeons around the world
• #1 selling adjustable gastric band for weight loss
• Academic publications with up to 10 years of follow-up

1. Executive summary: Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding for the treatment of obesity (Update and Re-appraisal). The Australian Safety and Efficacy Register of New Interventional Procedures - Surgical (ASERNIPS) 2002; 1. (Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding surgery, like the LAP-BAND® System surgery, is associated with a mean short-term mortality rate of around 0.05% compared to 0.50% for Gastric Bypass and 0.31% for Vertical Banded Gastroplasty.)