| Gastric Banding Overview
Although gastric banding has been practiced in Europe since the late 20th century, it was not until 2001 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the gastric banding procedure, consisting of placing a small band around the upper part of the stomach, in order to create a small pouch.
After this surgery, patients must expect a 2 to 4-day hospital stay, a return to their activities within the next 3 to 5 weeks. The risk of post-surgery complications such as esophageal stricture gastric banding, but more often slight discomforts caused by the reduction of the stomach, such as nausea and vomiting do exist.
Getting the stomach reduced in size to a pouch makes people feel full sooner than before the procedure, reducing their chances of overeating and gaining weight. Among the benefits of this procedure, patients can reverse the surgery asking to remove the band, or they can discuss with the doctor and adjust the band by deflation.
Gastric banding is a restrictive procedure that makes people control their weight by reducing the food that the stomach can hold after surgery. Because patients cannot over eat, their calorie consumption is reduced, leading to weight loss within the term of one year or so, depending on the actual weight of a patient.
Because bariatric procedures requires the physician to make large incision in the abdomen or several small incisions with small instruments and a camera, complications may occur, including esophageal stricture gastric banding due to scars in the esophagus when the operation is performed.
Open procedure and laparoscopic approach have their own risks respectively, but statistically, most bariatric related procedures are safe if they are recommended by qualified physicians and performed by accredited surgeons. In general terms, the main complication and risk of all of them is malnutrition and other nutritional problems that can be resolved by prescribing dietary supplements.
In fact, there are several studies remarking that gastric banding is the procedure requiring a short hospital stay. It is also the one with prompt recovery and little risk of complications, and very rare cases of esophageal stricture gastric banding, although patients must be careful chewing all their food, and stop eating when they feel full.
More than side effects what patients experience is discomfort when they over eat, however, the pouch may stretch allowing more food as time goes by, but making the surgery useless because all benefits are eliminated with this practice. Research in Europe found that patients lose between 63% to 75% of excess weight in periods ranging from 12 months to 3 years if they follow their doctor's advice.
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