Gastric Banding

What is a Gastric Band?

A gastric band is literally what its name refers to - it is a band that ties around the stomach (hence gastric). This has a two-fold effect - it separates the stomach into two main cavities and it restricts the amount of food which can pass from one part of the stomach to the other.

The band is positioned so that the top cavity is significantly smaller than the lower cavity. Thus this small pouch can only hold a small amount of food. The hole which connects the two parts of the stomach is quite small, and this restricts the amount of food which can pass from one cavity to the other.

The result of this is that the smaller top pouch of the stomach will fill up very quickly, making the recipient of the band feel fuller, quicker, thus reducing appetite. Meanwhile it takes longer for the food to pass through to the second larger cavity of the stomach, so the recipient would feel "full" for longer.

Advantages.

The greatest advantage of a gastric band over other surgical weight loss procedures is the fact that it is fully adjustable before and after its implantation. The inner surface of the gastric band contains a balloon which is inflatable. This balloon is connected by tubing to a reservoir containing liquid which is placed under the skin in the abdomen.

Once implanted the surgeon can simply make adjustments to the diameter of the band by inflating or deflating the balloon using a needle to subtract or add liquid to the reservoir. The overall effect is a reduction in the original diameter of the hole (scientific name stoma) connecting the two parts of the stomach.

A.M.I. SOFT GASTRIC BAND