Gastric Lap Band Risks
Gastric banding and lap banding are generally considered safe procedures, however all surgery carries some risk and this should be considered before going ahead with any weight loss surgery.
Some possible complications are -
Infections of the wounds, though this applies to all types of surgery, not just gastric banding. Antibiotics are administered during the surgery to lessen the chances of this.
There's the possibility of damage to other internal organs during the surgery, again this is not specific to gastric banding.
If you lose weight too rapidly there is a risk of developing gallstones. Not only painful, this may mean that your gallbladder will need to be removed.
Specific banding surgery problems include -
Port related problems - it's thought that as many as 10% of people will have a problem with their port at sometime. This could be quite minor in nature but irritating nonetheless.
Gastric band erosion - where the band begins to erode into the stomach. This happens is in up to 5% of cases. Surgery will be needed to remove the band.
Gastric band slippage - where the band slips downwards from its intended position. This happens in about 5% cases. Surgery may be needed to reposition the band if it slips too far.
Band infections - about 2% of people will get a gastric band infection. In most case this can be quickly treated with a course of antibiotics.
The gastric band may also break. In which case surgery will be need to remove and replace it.
Even with a gastric lap band in place a small number of people will fail to lose weight and some may even gain weight. However, for most people average excess weight loss is up to 50%.
Despite all the possible risks, for the vast majority of people losing a substantial amount of weight means the benefits to their long term health outweigh the possibility of potential problems.