Choking the entry of food into the stomach cavity with a silastic band was a very common procedure, 10-15 years ago. Here, a silastic inflatable band is used to wrap around the upper part of the stomach just below the food pipe, so that taking even a small quantity of food would give a sense of fullness.
It results an average loss of 20-40 % of excess body weight, at one year. Some cases even more. The advantages of this procedure is that it is simpler, and there is no “staple-cutting” of the stomach and there are no anastomoses (intestinal connections). However, this procedure has resulted in many complications, like slipping and erosion of these bands, resulting in their removal. Patients also need to have repeated hospital visits, to adjust the tightness of the band, to either prevent vomiting or weight regain. This is done by injecting measured amounts of saline into the inflatable band.
Removal of the gastric band will lead to regain of all the lost weight, thereby needing another operation for weight loss! Most of these have been converted to either sleeve or gastric bypass. Currently, most bariatric surgeons have abandoned this procedure of gastric banding, for better operations.
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