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| Lap Band Weight Control Surgery |
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The Lap-Band ® System is the newest type of gastric surgery for weight control. It is rapidly becoming the most popular type of weight loss surgery because of the many advantages over other types of gastric surgery, such as the gastric bypass procedure.
The best part about the Lap Band procedure is that it is adjustable and uses a gastric restriction band designed to help a patient who is morbidly obese shed pounds quickly and easily to improve their health and weight-related health conditions. Patients who opt for the Lap Band surgical procedure enjoy an enhanced quality of life as the pounds quickly vanish. |
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The Concept of Lap Band Surgery
The concept behind the Lap Band System is reducing the stomach capacity by a restrictive band so that less food can be eaten at one time and the feeling of fullness occurs when less food is consumed.
Advantages of Lap Band Surgery
The Lap Band surgery has some very big advantages over other gastric surgical procedures. The stomach is not cut at all; there are no staples or gastric re-routing involved. The digestive process remains normal so that nutrients from the smaller quantities of food eaten are fully absorbed to benefit the body and maintain health; as a result, there is no “dumping syndrome” possibility too common with gastric bypass surgery.
Dumping syndrome is when food passes too quickly through the altered gastric system and diarrhea occurs soon after each meal. The Lap Band procedure is adjustable and fully reversible and is the only such weight loss system approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use by United States surgeons that is adjustable or reversible.
The Lap Band name comes from the technique used when a gastric restriction band, considered to be a medical device, is implanted in the body using laparoscopic surgery. The medical device is a silicone ring that is placed around the upper portion of the stomach and is filled with saline solution, which is purified salt water, so that the food storage pouch of the stomach is smaller. The band controls the stomach outlet, the stoma, between the smaller upper pouch of the stomach and the lower stomach. Because the size of the stomach is reduced, the sense of fullness comes more quickly after food is eaten. The food also moves more slowly from the upper stomach to the lower stomach as it is digested. This results in a patient eating less and losing weight.
The Lap Band surgery is much less invasive as surgical procedures used for weight loss in the past. The recovery time is greatly reduced because only a small incision is made to allow laparoscopic devices to be inserted into the abdominal area to access the stomach during the Lap Band procedure. The post-operative pain is reduced greatly, often to the point that prescription pain medication is not required as the patient recovers. The hospital stay is also reduced and is seldom longer than one or two days unless other medical conditions warrant a longer stay.
The Lap Band can be removed and the digestive system returned to normal just as easily as the band was originally put in place. The Lap Band cost is lower than the traditional gastric bypass procedure because there is much less surgical time involved and less hospital recovery time. The Lap Band cost starts at about $3,000 and up, depending on the specific doctor, hospital, length of hospital stay, and other factors.
The Lap Band procedure is the weight loss surgery of choice for women who are in their childbearing years. Pregnancy involves much higher risks for a woman who has had any weight loss surgery, especially a gastric bypass. The band, however, can be removed if a woman decided to become pregnant, resulting in risks that are reduced to pre-surgical levels.
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