Article Advise

submitted: Aug 27th 2008 | by: DonaldSaunders | Total views: 1 | Word Count: 587 | |

Obesity surgery has advanced considerably in the past few years and modern forms of surgery such as gastric lap banding are unquestionably a lot safer and carry many fewer complications than early forms of open gastric bypass surgery. Nevertheless, there are still risks and they need to be discussed with your surgeon before having surgery.

Gastric lap band surgery has several risks that are specific to this form of surgery and also has the same risks which come will any major surgery. Additionally, there are some general risks that are seen with any surgery involving patients who are overweight.

The first and most serious risk is of course that of death either during surgery or shortly after and directly related to surgery. At this stage (gastric lap band surgery has been done for some 13 years now but has only been licensed for use in the US since 2001) there have been very few deaths seen and it is difficult to give a figure, though it is generally agreed that the risk of death from gastric lap band surgery is less than 1%.

One interesting thing to note is that in one Australian study no deaths were reported in a group of 2,700 patients who have had laparoscopic adjustable gastric band surgery since 1994. It should be noted however that Australia has been a leader in establishing the use of the laparoscopic adjustable gastric band and that over ninety percent of all weight loss surgeries carried out in Australia are now using this method. This is important as, when you interpret the data from this particular study, you have to bear in mind that the experience of the surgeon is an extremely important factor in terms of both risk and complication. Surgeons with a great deal of experience with this technique show a far higher rate of success.

Several of the risks encountered during surgery are general as opposed to lap band specific and are surgical risks to do with things like as your age, weight, reaction to anesthetic and the presence of disease (whether or not this is directly associated with your weight problem). The main lap band specific risk during surgery is that of gastric perforation (a tear occurring in the stomach wall) which happens in approximately 1% of all cases.

The vast majority of complications occur following lap band surgery and the majority of patients will run into some form of complication in the weeks and months following surgery. Such complications will not necessarily be serious and will range from very mild to quite severe.

Around half of patients will suffer varying degrees of nausea and vomiting and approximately one-third of patients will also experience regurgitation (gastroesophageal reflux). About a quarter of patients will suffer band slippage and roughly one patient in seven will suffer a blockage to the passage joining the two parts of the stomach.

Other mild to severe difficulties after surgery can include the erosion of the band into the stomach and twisting or leakage of the access port. Problems with swallowing, constipation and diarrhea are also fairly common.

In a very small number of patients (less than 1%) a whole series of non-serious problems can arise including gastritis, migration of the stomach above the diaphragm, pancreatitis, dehydration, abdominal pain, gas, chest pain and infection.

Generally speaking lap band surgery, especially when performed laparoscopically, has fewer risks than other forms of weight loss surgery, but the risks are still substantial and need to be discussed in detail with your surgeon and understood before you take any decision to have surgery.

About the Author

Visit GastricBypassFacts.info for the latest information about gastric bypass surgery and for additional details of gastric band surgery.

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