What does the Gastric Band surgery involve?
The operation is performed under general anaesthesia, and the entire procedure usually takes approximately one hour. The laparoscopic or keyhole method is always used.
Mr Horner will make several small cuts in the upper abdomen. He will place surgical instruments, along with a telescope, inside the abdomen in order to perform the operation. Mr Horner will then create a small tunnel behind the upper stomach, and will pass the band around the stomach and secure it. This creates a smaller pouch in the stomach.
The small incisions are closed with skin glue and waterproof dressings. The dressings can be removed by the patient themselves, 7 – 8 days after surgery.
A return to full and normal activity is usually possible after 10 to 12 days.
Mr Horner uses local anesthesia in all the small skin incisions, so that postoperative discomfort is kept to a minimum.
How is the success of the operation measured?
- Weight loss targets are measured by the percentage (%) loss of excess weight.
- Achieving an excess weight loss of 50%, is considered the minimum for weight loss surgery to have been successful.
- Achievable excess weight losses of 60 to 65% after gastric banding at 5 years, is not dissimilar to the weight loss following gastric bypass.
- The overall success rate after gastric banding is approximately 90%.
- As with any surgical procedure, complications may rarely occur, and which require removal of the band. In Mr Horner’s personal experience, this has been necessary in less than 4% of all his cases.
- The adjustable gastric band is technically simple to insert, and as importantly in Mr Horner’s view should the very occasional need arise, the band may be removed with equal facility.
- Mr Horner routinely performs gastric banding procedures for morbid obesity, but where he considers the gastric band to be inappropriate, referral to a consultant surgical colleague who undertakes gastric bypass or sleeve resection will be arranged.
