How does a gastric banding surgery make you lose weight?

The Adjustable Gastric Band – often called the band – involves an inflatable band that is placed around the upper portion of the stomach, creating a small stomach pouch above the band, and the rest of the stomach below the band.

The adjustable Gastric Band is a device that is placed around the stomach, which decreases the ability to ingest food

Technique and Function

The gastric band is placed around the upper part of the stomach which creates a small bag where the passage of food from this bag to the rest of the stomach is through a small tube. This slows the vacating of the food and provokes a feeling of rapid satiety. The size of the tube varies over time and the band can be tightened or loosened.

• Estimated reduction of 40-50% of excess weight in approximately two years after the surgery.
• Time for the procedure: 30 minutes.
• Time of hospitalization: 1 night.

To prevent subsequent failure of the intervention it is necessary for the patient to cooperate in adjusting their lifestyle and is given nutritional guidance.

Procedure

The common explanation of how this device works is that with the smaller stomach pouch, eating just a small amount of food will satisfy hunger and promote the feeling of fullness. The feeling of fullness depends upon the size of the opening between the pouch and the remainder of the stomach created by the gastric band. The size of the stomach opening can be adjusted by filling the band with sterile saline, which is injected through a port placed under the skin.

Reducing the size of the opening is done gradually over time with repeated adjustments or “fills.” The notion that the band is a restrictive procedure (works by restricting how much food can be consumed per meal and by restricting the emptying of the food through the band) has been challenged by studies that show the food passes rather quickly through the band, and that absence of hunger or feeling of being satisfied was not related to food remaining in the pouch above the band. What is known is that there is no malabsorption; the food is digested and absorbed as it would be normally.

The clinical impact of the band seems to be that it reduces hunger, which helps the patients to decrease the amount of calories that are consumed

Advantages

1. Reduces the amount of food the stomach can hold
2. Induces excess weight loss of approximately 40 – 50 percent
3. Involves no cutting of the stomach or rerouting of the intestines
4. Requires a shorter hospital stay, usually less than 24 hours, with some centers discharging the patient the same day as surgery
5. Is reversible and adjustable
6. Has the lowest rate of early postoperative complications and mortality among the approved bariatric procedures
7. Has the lowest risk for vitamin/mineral deficiencies