What Risks Are There With Gastric Lap Band Surgery?
August 22, 2008
Obesity surgery has advanced considerably in the past few years and modern forms of surgery such as gastric lap banding are unquestionably a lot safer and carry many fewer complications than early forms of open gastric bypass surgery. Nevertheless, there are still risks and they need to be discussed with your surgeon before having surgery.
Gastric lap band surgery has several risks that are specific to this form of surgery and also has the same risks which come will any major surgery. Additionally, there are some general risks that are seen with any surgery involving patients who are overweight.
The first and most serious risk is of course that of death either during surgery or shortly after and directly related to surgery. At this stage (gastric lap band surgery has been done for some 13 years now but has only been licensed for use in the US since 2001) there have been very few deaths seen and it is difficult to give a figure, though it is generally agreed that the risk of death from gastric lap band surgery is less than 1%.
It is however interesting to see that that in one Australian study no deaths at all were reported in a group of some 2,700 patients who have undergone laparoscopic adjustable gastric band surgery since 1994. It should be noted however that Australia has been in the forefront of establishing the use of the laparoscopic adjustable gastric band and that more than ninety percent of all weight loss surgeries undertaken in Australia now use this method. This is significant as, in interpreting data from this particular study, you have to bear in mind that the experience of the surgeon is an important factor in terms of both risk and complication. Surgeons with a lot of experience of this technique exhibit a far higher rate of success.
Many of the risks encountered during the course of surgery are general rather than lap band specific and are common risks to do with such things as your age, weight, reaction to anesthetic and the existence of disease (whether such disease is or is not directly associated with your weight problem). The chief lap band specific risk during the course of surgery is that of gastric perforation (a tear occurring in the wall of the stomach) which occurs in about 1% of all cases.
By far and away the majority of complications occur after surgery and the majority of patients will experience some form of complication in the weeks and months after their operation. These complications will not necessarily be serious and will range from very mild to quite severe.
Around half of all patients will suffer varying degrees of nausea and vomiting and in the region of one-third of patients will also suffer from regurgitation (gastroesophageal reflux). In the region of a quarter of patients will experience band slippage and approximately one patient in seven will experience a blockage to the passage joining the two parts of the stomach.
Other mild to severe difficulties after surgery can include the erosion of the band into the stomach and twisting or leakage of the access port. Problems with swallowing, constipation and diarrhea are also fairly common.
In a very few patients (under one percent) a whole series of non-serious difficulties can arise including gastritis, hiatal hernia, inflammation of the pancreas, dehydration, abdominal pain, gas, chest pain and infection.
Generally speaking lap band surgery, especially when performed laparoscopically, has fewer risks than other forms of weight loss surgery, but the risks are still substantial and need to be discussed in detail with your surgeon and understood before you take any decision to have surgery.
Comments
Got something to say?