Would You Be A Suitable Patient For Gastric Lap Banding?

There are a number of different types of weight loss surgery available nowadays including the relatively new surgical procedure of gastric lap banding which is gainng in popularity and is fast becoming the preferred choice for a significant number of severely overweight or morbidly obese people. But would you make a suitable candidate for gastric lap banding surgery?

In providing an answer to this question we will start by assuming that you are suitable for weight loss surgery generally and that your only concern is whether or not you should be thinking about lap banding. In very simple terms this means that you are over the age of 18, are severely overweight with a body mass index (BMI) of over 40 (or over 35 with at least one co-morbid condition) and that you have already tried traditional weight loss methods (including possible drug treatment) without any success.

It is frequently thought that people contemplating weight loss surgery are simply overweight and it is all too easy to forget that people who are severely overweight are generally suffering from several other conditions, many of which result from the fact that they are overweight. It is the existence of these other conditions that often constitutes an obstacle when it comes to choosing between different forms of surgery.

As gastric lap band surgery is a form of restrictive surgery in which the stomach is physically reduced in size to limit the quantity of food that can pass through the stomach and digestive system, it follows that this form of surgery is probably not going to be suitable if your esophagus, stomach or intestine are abnormal. Any abnormality might be congenital or acquired and a common problem experienced is a narrowing at one or more points along the digestive tract.

Problems within the stomach or esophagus that might result in bleeding (such as esophageal or gastric varices � a dilated vein) would also make gastric lap banding impractical, as would difficulties at the location at which the band would be placed around the stomach, such as an injury, scarring or gastric perforation.

Problems may also arise if you are suffering from any form of inflammation or inflammatory disease within the gastrointestinal tract like ulcers, esophagitis or Crohn's disease.

Finally, gastric lap banding is not suitable for pregnant women or where pregnancy is being contemplated. If a woman becomes pregnant following gastric lap banding it is possible to deflate the band to compensate for the raised nutritional requirement however, where loosening the band does not do the trick, the band might need to be removed.

One benefit of the gastric lap banding system is that the operation is reversible and, should it prove necessary, the band can be removed and the stomach returned to its previous state. This can however also be a disadvantage of the system. Motivation is the key to any form of weight loss surgery but becomes an especially important issue when it comes to gastric lap banding. Should there be any doubt about your determination to succeed then this form of surgery might not be a suitable option for you.

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