How Does Lap Band Surgery Actually Work?
Lap band surgery has become a very common surgical method that is being used to achieve weight loss goals these days. Being a restrictive weight loss surgery method, lap band surgeries are often compared to staple surgery, which is another restrictive weight loss process. The good news is that during the lap band surgery procedures, the body is not completely opened up, but only a few external incisions are made.
A small stomach pouch is inserted in the upper part of the stomach and is used to restrict the diet intake in to the body. Basically, the lap band makes you feel full for a small amount of food eaten by you, making you consume less. On the whole, the surgery has amazing capabilities and has proven to be a boon for those suffering from extreme obesity for years.
The pillar around which this theory revolves is simple- less is the amount of food consumed by the human body, more will be the weight loss brought about. The lap band is a silicon cylindrical structure, which is adjusted right above the stomach using certain mechanical parts. The pouch is used to replace the actual stomach and is smaller in size as compared to the size of the stomach.
Therefore, when the person takes in only a small quantity of food, the lap band fills up and thus, the person’s brain receptors get the signal that the person is full. This is a simple, yet very effective method to ensure that the patient not only looses weight, but also feels that he is getting the adequate diet (while in reality, that is not the case).
The size of the pouch can be handled and adjusted according to the needs of the person, but usually, it is set at around 10ml- setting the consuming capacity of the stomach to 10ml. After getting the surgery done, the patients are supposed to maintain a strict diet chart so that their lap bands function properly. This further helps in reducing the calorific intake.
There are two broad ways in which the lap band might be placed in the desired place- one using the traditional surgical method (using one large incision over the abdomen) and the other employing laparoscopic means, wherein, 5 small incisions are made into the abdomen.
There are some precautions though, which need to be adopted by the patients in order to make their lap bands function correctly. Drinking a lot of water and eating small lumps of fully chewed food are two of the main precautions that need to be taken. Water lubricates the tract and therefore prevents the food from being stuck anywhere. Ingesting large lumps of food, swollen without chewing, might lead to blockage and even slippage of the lap band.