Gastric banding is one of the best operations we have to help people with chronic weight problems. In safe hands the operation takes some 45 minutes and can even be performed as a day case although it is customary in the UK to allow for an overnight stay.
With an excellent surgeon like Healthier Weight’s Professor Franco Favretti or Mr Ameet Patel, the majority of people who chose to have a gastric band can have it inserted via a single incision – single incision laparoscopic surgery or SILS for short. Professor Favretti even makes the single incision in the umbilicus (belly button) so after six months it’s almost impossible to see if someone has had a gastric band operation at all.
Having been so used to seeing Franco and Ameet’s band results, I was sad to see a patient recently who had travelled overseas for the surgery. She had come to us because she had not lost any weight – which is not surprising because the band had not been tightened. Unbelievably it had not been explained to her that regular adjustments would be required! Incidentally, she is not alone in this regard. It’s quite common to hear this story from patients who have ventured abroad for their gastric band surgery. Fortunately, in this case an x-ray confirmed that the band itself was in a viable position and I was able to adjust the device correctly.
What saddened me was the degree of scarring which resulted from her gastric banding surgery. As you can see below this is very pronounced and dramatically different from the patient who had an umbilical SILS with Healthier Weight.
