What is a Gastric Band?
A gastric band limits the amount of food that the stomach will hold at any time. The inflatable ring controls the flow of food from this smaller pouch to the rest of the digestive tract. The patient will feel comfortably full with a small amount of food. And because of the slow emptying, the patient will continue to feel full for several hours reducing the urge to eat between meals.
What is the process?
Installing a gastric band involves minimally invasive surgery that involves applying a prosthesis around the stomach creating a small gastric pouch and a calibrated opening to the rest of the stomach.
What are the advantages of gastric bands?
The advantages of gastric bands surgery include:
- Reduced surgical trauma and pain
- Less invasive for the abdominal wall (requires small incisions of 5 to10 millimeters) and for the stomach (no cutting or stapling of the organ is needed)
- Shorter hospitalization than standard surgery
- Respect of the anatomical and functional integrity of the stomach without by-passing portions of the stomach or intestines
- Individualized to the patient's needs via inflation or deflation of the band
- Fully reversible by simply removing the band.