The gastric Band bariatric surgery is designed to help significantly overweight people lose excess body weight, improve weight-related health conditions, and enhance their quality of life.

A gastric band consists of a silicone ring containing an inflatable cuff placed around the upper part of the stomach, a fill port placed directly beneath the skin, and a flexible tube connecting the Band to it.

How Gastric Band Surgery Works

The gastric Band involves implanting a fully adjustable medical device (the gastric Band) around the upper portion of the stomach during a minimally invasive surgical procedure. Once the Band is in place, tightening it can satisfy the patient’s appetite with a small amount of food.

Once the Band is in place around the upper portion of the stomach, your bariatric surgeon, Dr. Bagnato, injects a sterile saline solution into the fill port until the Band reaches the desired tightness.

Dr. John Bagnato has performed over 5000 Bariatric Surgeries since 2002.

The goal of gastric band surgery is to create a new, smaller stomach pouch that can hold only a tiny amount of food, reducing the stomach’s food storage capacity. The Band also controls the stoma (stomach outlet) between the newly created, smaller upper stomach pouch and the lower part of the stomach. The smaller the stomach, the faster people feel full; the smaller the stoma, the slower food moves between the upper and lower portions of the stomach during digestion. As a result, people feel less hungry, eat less, and lose weight.

Popularity of Gastric Band Surgery

Unlike other bariatric surgery procedures, the gastric Band does not require stomach cutting, stapling, or rerouting of the gastrointestinal tract to bypass normal digestion. Other features of a gastric band include:

• A fast recovery period.
• Reduced risk of immediate post-surgical complications.
• The only reversible weight loss surgery.

These features made gastric bands the most popular weight loss surgery worldwide. However, improvements in other bariatric surgeries, specifically the sleeve gastrectomy, with its lower complication rate, improved weight loss, and hormonal effects, have reduced gastric Band’s popularity as a viable weight loss surgery option. 

Gastric Band is available in specific cases but at a far lower rate than in the past.

Alternatives to the Gastric Band

Currently, gastric sleeve surgery is considered a more effective and reliable weight loss option than gastric band surgery. This is because the gastric sleeve procedure involves removing a significant portion of the stomach, which reduces its size and limits the amount of food that can be consumed. 

The gastric Band is associated with a higher risk of complications, such as band slippage, erosion, and infection, compared to the gastric sleeve procedure. For this reason, the gastric sleeve is the preferred surgical option for patients who are struggling with obesity and related health conditions.