What is Gastric Band Surgery?
The Gastric Band System is an adjustable gastric band designed to help you lose excess body weight, improve weight-related health conditions and enhance quality of life. It reduces the stomach capacity and restricts the amount of food that can be consumed at one time.
Laparoscopic Gastric Band Surgery is the only adjustable and reversible weight-loss surgery available to date. The procedure does not require stomach cutting and stapling or gastrointestinal re-routing to bypass normal digestion.
The name “Lap-Band” which is commonly used for this surgical technique is derived from the words “laparoscopic” and the actual name of the implanted medical device, the “gastric band”.
The Gastric Band is a silicone ring designed to be placed around the upper part of the stomach and filled with saline on its inner surface. This creates a new, smaller stomach pouch that can only hold a small amount of food, reducing the food storage area in the stomach.
The band also controls the stoma (stomach outlet) between the new upper pouch and the lower part of the stomach. When the stomach shrinks, you feel full faster and the food consumed moves slower, thereby slowing down the digestive process.
As a result, you eat less and lose weight.
THE PROCEDURE
During the procedure, our surgeons use laparoscopic techniques (making tiny incisions rather than a large incision) to wrap the Gastric Band around the patient’s stomach. A narrow camera is passed through a port so the surgeon can view the operative site on a nearby video monitor. The band is then fastened around the upper stomach to create the “new” stomach pouch, which limits and controls the quantity of food intake. The band is then locked securely in a ring around the stomach, creating the “band” effect.
Once placed around the stomach, tubing connects the GASTRIC BAND to an access port fixed beneath the skin of your abdomen. This allows the surgeon to change the stoma (stomach outlet) size by adding or subtracting saline (or salt water), inside the inner balloon through the access port.
This adjustment process helps determine the rate of weight loss.
If the band is too loose and weight loss is inadequate, adding more saline can reduce the size of the stoma to further restrict the amount of food that can move through it.
If the band is too tight, the surgeon will remove some saline to loosen the band and reduce the amount of restriction.
The diameter of the band can be modified to meet your individual needs, which can change as you lose weight. For example, pregnant patients can expand their band to accommodate a growing fetus, while patients who are not experiencing significant weight loss can have their bands tightened.
The Gastric Band System is also the only adjustable weight-loss surgery available, to help maintain restriction and keep the weight off long-term. Since there is no cutting or stapling of the stomach, or gastrointestinal re-routing involved in the procedure, it is considered the safest, least invasive, and least traumatic of all weight-loss surgeries.
The Gastric Band System Advantages
PREPARATION FOR SURGERY
Before traveling to Cyprus, as part of your Gastric Band surgery preparation you will complete a detailed bariatric specific questionnaire, which will allow our doctors to determine your eligibility for Gastric Band surgery. If you are not ready to make lifestyle changes, you will not be considered eligible for the procedure.
To help you adjust to your new lifestyle, we advise you to empty your home of all edible “temptations”, creating a suitable environment for your return, post operatively.
Ten days prior to your arrival in Cyprus, you will receive all the necessary pre operative instructions, to prepare yourself both physically and mentally for your chosen procedure.
After hospital admission, you will receive psychological advice. This will help you adhere to a healthier lifestyle. Without changing your lifestyle, the surgery will not be a success. You will also receive nutritional counseling before (and after) your surgery, by our specialists.
Recovery
Patients return to normal activity relatively quickly after surgery. The length of hospital stay is usually around 48 hours.
The laparoscopic approach our surgeons employ has the advantages of reduced post-operative pain, shortened hospital stay, and quicker recovery to the surgery. It takes most people about a week to return to work and a month to six weeks to resume strenuous exercising.
LIFE AFTER SURGERY
Gastric Band surgery is the first step on the road to successful weight loss and maintained results. However, this is only possible by your commitment to adopting a lifelong program that will help you meet your goals. The adopted regime will include routine check-ups with your surgeon, ongoing band adjustments if necessary, and regular attendance at support group meetings.
You will need to work closely with our surgeon and weight-management team, follow their advice, and communicate openly with them.
You will also need to learn to use the Gastric Band System as a tool to help you lose your excess weight.
Post-Surgery Nutrition
After surgery, you will need a new nutrition plan. Our surgeon and/or dietitian can help you learn about and get used to the changes in lifestyle and eating habits you need to make. It is very important to follow the eating and drinking instructions beginning immediately after the operation.
In the first few weeks after your surgery, you will be on a liquid diet since only thin liquids will be tolerated by your stomach at that time. As you heal, you will gradually progress to pureed foods (three to four weeks post-op) and then soft foods (five weeks post-op). Finally, you will be able to eat solid foods.
When you are at the stage to eat solid foods without problems, you will need to pay close attention to your diet.
The Gastric Band is designed to restrict solids, not liquids, so drinking liquids will not make you feel full. You also should not compensate for this by drinking liquids during or immediately after meals however, as they will flush food through the reduced stomach pouch, which means you will not get the prolonged feeling of satiety needed to help you eat less.
You will also need to learn to eat slowly and chew your food very thoroughly.
It is recommended that you eat only three small meals a day and make sure that these meals contain adequate nutrients. You will need to make good food choices and learn to avoid problem foods, such as high-fiber, high-fat, and dry foods, since these are more difficult for the small stomach pouch to digest. Good food choices include fruit and vegetables, lean protein, some bread and cereal, and some dairy products.
Foods that have a concentrated supply of calories with little nutritional value, such as milkshakes, syrups, jam, and pastries, should be avoided as much as possible.
Exercise Plan
Exercise is very important and incorporating regular physical activity into your daily routine is as important as following your nutrition plan.
Often Weight Loss Surgery patients have been inactive due to decreased activity tolerance, psychological constraints and in some cases, physical disabilities. After Gastric Band surgery aerobic activities, particularly walking and swimming are generally best tolerated. Your surgeon will advise you on which activity is right for you.
Adjustments
Being able to adjust the band is a unique feature of the Gastric Band device and is a normal part of the post-surgery follow-up. This feature allows your surgeon or one of our associate doctors in your country of residence, to adjust to the right level of restriction to meet your individual needs.
Adjustments are simple office visits that only take 10 or 15 minutes. They are performed without surgery using a thin needle to inject or withdraw saline from the band via the access port. This widens or narrows the band opening to control the rate of your weight loss. The first adjustment is typically done 4 to 6 weeks after surgery and the total number of adjustments you may have will depend on your individual weight-loss rate and results.
For the best results to be obtained from the Gastric Band surgical procedure, your active participation is paramount. Your success depends on your motivation and commitment.