Loyola Center for Metabolic Surgery & Bariatric Care

In this surgical procedure, a surgeon places an inflatable silicone collar around the upper part of your stomach, creating a small upper pouch and a larger lower pouch. The upper pouch restricts the amount of food you can eat before you feel full. The band is connected by a tube to a port just under the skin of your abdomen, through which it can be filled with fluid. Adding fluid inflates the band, turning it into a fatter donut shape, which further restricts the passage of food from the upper to the lower pouch. You will need to make multiple visits to the doctor after surgery so that the band can be progressively inflated.

Advantages:

• There is minimal stress to your body because your digestive system is neither cut nor rerouted.
• Most patients can return to work within a week.
• The band can be adjusted according to your weight-loss goals.
• Since your digestive system remains intact, you may not need to take nutritional supplements.
• If needed, the procedure can be reversed or converted to another bariatric operation.

Cautions:

• You will require frequent (but short and painless) clinic visits to adjust the band.
• Patients on average lose less weight than with other procedures but still have many of the benefits of moderate weight loss.
• You will have this device in you for life.
• The band does not physically restrict what you can eat, only how much, so you will have to be very vigilant with your diet.
• Complications include the possibility of band slippage or part of your stomach slipping through the band, device infection and device malfunction.

Read more about our medical weight loss program and our other surgical options for weight loss.