Tag: lap band surgery

Lap Band Surgery Information

There are many questions that people have about Lap Band surgery. For many, it is a great solution to their weight problem and can actually improve their health by helping them to lose the excess pounds. The key, if you feel that you would make a good candidate for the procedure, is to be informed of how the process works and the necessary changes that must occur in your life. In order to enjoy Lap Band success you absolutely must know the details of how the program works and how the actual surgery works.

Lap Band surgery was approved by the Federal Drug Administration in June 2001. The Lap Band system employs a technique of constricting the stomach at a certain place. The stomach pouch will hold roughly two to four ounces of food at a time. This gives the person the feeling of being full after a few bites. You will eat less, yet still have the feeling of being full.

During the procedure, Lap Band patients are given general anesthesia. The next step is for the bariatric surgeon to make five two to three inch incisions in the abdomen. These small incisions allow the doctor to work with a scope rather than being forced to make a larger incision. The smaller incisions mean that there is less recovery time and the healing process is much faster than with past, invasive, weight loss cure surgeries.

After the lap band procedure is finished you will be wheeled into a recovery room. The expected hospital stay is only two to three days depending on how well you recover. After you have awakened from the anesthesia and are coherent there will be a visit from a nutritionist. You have to stick to their rules. There will be many changes in your dietary lifestyle that are important in order for you to stay healthy and lose weight.

You cannot expect your lifestyle to ever be the same again. You have to make fundamental changes in order to maintain weight loss and keep yourself healthy. This means being mindful of what you eat and how often you eat. Some of your favorite foods will be off limits to you. You have to concentrate on the quality of the food you eat, as well as the quantity. So throw away those empty calories and put more protein into your diet. It also means that caffeine is a definite thing you must avoid.

Hopefully, with dietary changes and exercise, you will be one of the Lap Band patients to enjoy tremendous success. No longer will you be ashamed of being overweight. The Lap Band surgery will truly change your life if you follow the regime of your doctor and nutritionist.

All surgery comes with a risk so its always advisable to exhaust all other avenues first. Try a diet plan that has a proven track record and as made it into the top 10 diet chart.

You can check out the Top 10 Diets as an alternative to lap band surgery by clicking here.

The Facts About Lap Band Surgery You Should Consider

Being overweight is not easy. Oftentimes, you feel alone and that the world is a place for thinner people. But with obesity on the rise it is more prevalent than you might think. Globally, there are three hundred million people who are considered obese and a billion people who are overweight. Those numbers are staggering when you consider the health complications that can occur. But, if you have tried dieting and exercise to lose the excess pounds and have met with no success, then it is time to consider Lap Band surgery.

If you are considering Lap Band surgery, then you should know that it has a great success rate. People are losing their desired amount of weight and keeping it off. There are also less complications and a shorter hospital stay when compared to Biliopancreatic Diversion and laparoscopic Roux en Y procedures.

If you have tried several of the traditional top 10 diets without success and you are considering the Lap Band procedure, then there are a few things you have to keep in mind. The first is that it will mean a dietary change for life. There are a number of do’s and don’ts with this type of surgery. You have to constantly be mindful of what type of food you are placing in your body. Instead of three meals a day, you will most likely be eating small, three ounce meals, ten to twelve times daily.

The second thing to consider is that there are Lap Band complications. This will most likely occur in the first few weeks as patients try to learn and adapt to their low diet. Overfilling the stomach is the number one complication for most patients. They simply do not take into account that the stomach pouch is one-third the size it used to be. So there will not be any gorging at Thanksgiving and Christmas meals.

The third thing to consider, post surgery, is that you still have to exercise. This is not some miracle cure that will happen overnight. You will still need to exercise in order to keep your heart and the rest of your bodily systems healthy. The surgery may work as a weight loss cure but you will still need to follow a diet and exercise regime.

And finally, there is the excess skin that you cannot exercise away. You may have to undergo plastic surgery after weight loss. These are all factors that should be considered when you are entertaining the idea of Lap Band surgery. You will find success if you follow your doctor’s orders and stay within your nutritional guidelines. You can make a success of this surgery if you put the energy into succeeding.

Could You Be A Suitable Candidate For Lap Banding?

There are several different forms of obesity surgery available now including the reasonably new surgical procedure of gastric lap banding which is rising in popularity and is rapidly becoming the preferred choice for a significant number of morbidly obese individuals. But are you a suitable candidate for gastric lap band weight loss surgery?

In answering this question we will start by presuming that you are suitable for obesity surgery generally and that your only concern is whether or not you should be thinking about lap banding. In very simple terms this would mean that you are over the age of 18, are morbidly obese with a body mass index (BMI) in excess of 40 (or over 35 with one or more co-morbid conditions and that you have already tried traditional weight loss methods (including possible drug treatment) without any success.

It is frequently assumed that people facing weight loss surgery are simply overweight and it is all too easy to forget that people who are severely overweight are often suffering from several other conditions, many of which result from the fact that they are overweight. It is the existence of these other conditions which normally presents a hurdle when it comes to choosing between different surgical options.

Because lap banding is a type of restrictive surgery where the stomach is physically restricted in size to limit the amount of food that can pass through the stomach and digestive system, this form of surgery is probably not going to be suitable if your esophagus, stomach or intestine are abnormal. An abnormality could be inherited or acquired and a common problem seen is a narrowing at some point along the digestive tract.

Problems within the stomach or esophagus which might result in bleeding (such as esophageal or gastric varices – a dilated vein) would also rule out gastric lap band surgery, as will problems at the site where the band is to be placed around the stomach, such as an injury, gastric perforation or scarring.

Problems might also arise if you are suffering from any type of inflammation or inflammatory condition in the gastrointestinal tract like esophagitis, ulcers or Crohn’s disease.

Finally, lap band surgery is not considered suitable for pregnant women or for women who are considering pregnancy. Should pregnancy occur after lap banding the band can be deflated to allow for the higher nutritional requirement however, where deflating the band is not sufficient, the band could need to be removed.

One advantage of lap band surgery is that the procedure is reversible and, if it becomes necessary, the band can be removed returning the stomach to its previous state. This can however also be a disadvantage of the system. Motivation is the key to any type of obesity surgery but is a particular issue when it comes to lap band surgery. Should you have any doubt about how determined you are to succeed then this form of surgery might not be the best choice for you.