Growing Number of Patients Opt for Gastric Banding

Ed was heavy enough certainly for a roux-en-y bypass procedure, which involves a bypass of the intestine and stomach stapling. But he was afraid of surgery and the potential complications. So almost exactly a year ago, he opted for gastric banding instead. It involves placing around the top portion of the stomach an adjustable band that can be inflated and made progressively tighter. It forces people to eat smaller portions of food.

 Dr. Mitchell Roslin is the Chief of Bariatric Surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital. He says, "Stapling actually creates a permanent change to the stomached, where as the band is placed on the outside of the stomach so it is therefore reversible and it doesn't change your anatomy." Because it's placed through minimally invasive surgery using laparoscopes--tiny scopes and instruments placed through small incisions--the patient is back in action the next day.

And now, the latest research in the annals of internal medicine shows after two years, obese patients who got banding lost on average 21.6 percent of their initial body weight. That was compared to a group who were instead placed on a very low calorie diet - Optifast at 500 calories a day, the weight loss drug xenical, and diet and exercise advice. That medically treated group only lost 5.5 percent of their weight.

"The United States mortality of gastric banding is probably less than one in a thousand compared to one in two hundred for a gastric bypass, so therefore it makes sense to explore expanding the indications for surgery for people who potentially are obese but not necessarily morbidly obese," says Dr. Roslin. Ed, who was morbidly obese, still saw tremendous results with the banding procedure.

 "I went from a high of maybe 364 to 370 I have been as low of 211, I think now I am 218. I can race them, I can play with them, I can pick them up, you have a relationship, you are no longer a log, you are a person, a living person again," he says. Dr. Roslin calls this study a home run. He believes the lap band is going to be the fastest growing procedure in all of general surgery because of its ease, low complication rates, and the incredible epidemic of obesity in America.