how long have they been doing lap-bands

I feel stupid now. why didn't I ask before how long have they been doing lap bands and what is the long term effects do they flip after they have been in for awhile? ?? Feed back please

I'm not sure why you would feel stupid? This is the time and place to ask these types of questions. The LapBand has been FDA approved in the US since 2001 - it has been done in other countries longer.  Banding provides the lowest total weight loss and highest long term complication rate.

 

ASMBS: Gastric Banding Gets Low Marks

ASMBS:  Gastric Banding Gets Low Marks,LAS VEGAS -- Adjustable gastric banding achieves only modest weight loss, and even that benefit deteriorates over time in most patients, a Dutch surgeon said here.


Five years after surgery, about two thirds of patients maintained 25% excess weight loss. At 10 years the success rate dropped to less than a third (31%).


Using 40% excess weight loss as the standard resulted in a five-year success rate of about 50%, which declined to 20% at 10 years, Edo Aarts, MD, reported at the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery meeting.


Control of obesity-related comorbid conditions deteriorated similarly over time.
"If you perform adjustable gastric banding, you must realize that this is not the final solution, most of the time, for your patients," said Aarts, of Rijnstate Hospital, Amhem, The Netherlands.
Reviewing the history of adjustable gastric banding, Aarts noted that initial results were encouraging when the procedure was introduced in the early 1990s. Gastric banding achieved good results with respect to excess weight loss and was associated with a low risk of morbidity and mortality.


The five-year results have been mixed, as some studies showed durable weight loss and others deterioration of initial benefits. Because of the procedure's relatively recent introduction, little information has accumulated regarding the long-term results with adjusted gastric banding, Aarts said.


Rijnstate Hospital has the most active bariatric surgery program in The Netherlands, he continued. Surgeons perform more than 800 procedures annually, and more than 3,000 patients have undergone laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding.


Aarts and colleagues evaluated results in 201 patients who had laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding procedures during 1995 to 2003. All the patients had rigorous follow-up at three-month intervals during the first year and then annually thereafter. As a result, 99% of the patients had complete follow-up data, which spanned an average of 9.6 years.


The patients had a mean baseline age of 37, and women accounted for three fourths of the cohort. Baseline body mass index averaged 46 kg/m², and 20% of the patients met the definition of super obese. Excess body weight averaged 83 kg.


Using excess weight loss >25% to define treatment success, Aarts and colleagues found that adjustable gastric banding was successful in about 80% of patients during the first three years, followed thereafter by a steady decline to 64% at 5 years and 31% at 10 years. (yes folks that is 25 lbs for every 100 to lose)


When treatment success was defined as band in place and excess weight loss >40%, the success rate was 70% at one year, 64% at three years, 50% at five years, and 20% at 10 years.
A third of patients had undergone reoperation after five years, increasing to 53% at 10 years. The incidence of band removal increased from 0.5% at one year to 11% at five years and 35% at 10 years. Conversion to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass accounted for half of all reoperations.
Control of diabetes, hypertension, and gastroesophageal reflux disease all deteriorated significantly (P<0.01) over time. In particular, the incidence of new-onset diabetes and hypertension increased during follow-up, as did the proportion of patients requiring acid-suppression therapy.


On the basis of the results, surgeons at the Dutch center have begun to re-evaluate their use of adjustable gastric banding for treatment of obesity. What role, if any, the procedure will play in the future has yet to be determined, said Aarts.
Obes Surg. 2006 Jul;16(7):829-35.
There are quite a few other studies on my blog if your interested.

http://lapbandtovsg.blogspot.com/p/studies.html

Good luck!

The adjustable gastric band has been used outside the USA for over 20 years. The Lap-Band (made by Allergan) was approved for use in the USA in 2001. The Realize Band (made by J&J) was approved for use in the USA in 2007.

Possible complications include esophageal or stomach pouch dilation (usually due to overeating), band displacement or slippage (caused by overeating, excessive coughing or vomiting, or an untreated hiatal hernia),and band erosion (the band migrates from the outside to the inside of the stomach, possibly because the band was overfilled). The injection port can flip over (due to poor surgical technique, stress from abdodminal exercise, or dumb luck). The port site can become infected, often because of bacteria traveling down the tubing from an eroded band. Saline solution can leak from the port, the tubing, or (rarely) the band itself, requiring surgery to replace whichever component is malfunctioning.

Dilation and slippage can often be fixed by a complete unfill and rest period during which the esophagus and stomach go back into normal positions. Sometimes slippage requires surgery to fix it. Band erosion requires surgery to remove the band. Flipped ports sometimes flip back into an accessible position on their own, but may require surgery to reposition them. 

Jean

I'm almost 2 1/2 years out and very happy I had the lap band surgery.

As with all surgeries(not just bariatric) there can be risk and future complications.

The VSG posters can say "their" proceedure is better than lapband and less complications, just as the Gastric Bypass posters could post that they have better weightloss than the VSG posters.  To each his own.

There's no limit on the seminars you can attend.  Most doctors perform both surgeries.  I relied on my doctors advice(and attending two different seminars) on which proceedure was "best for me".  

One more thing, there are definitely pros/cons with each surgery.  I liked the fact that the death rate is lower with lap band.

Sandra