Weight Loss Procedures: Gastric Bypass Vs. LAP-BAND

I have a family friend who recently underwent gastric bypass surgery. Thankfully she made it safely through the operation and is now recovering at home. While I wish her all the best in her battle against obesity, I began to wonder if there was something less invasive that she could have done. No; I don't mean diet pills or another overnight success guaranteeing weight loss program. I know that she, like many of us Americans, have invested into those empty promises time and time again.

After seeing a tv commercial advertising the LAP-BAND procedure, I decided to see how the two procedures compared.

Unsurprisingly, 80% of all weight loss operations in the U.S. are gastric bypasses. And, although the LAP-BAND has received FDA approval, it has to be as successful or as widely used as the gastric bypass. Below is a list of myths from the Bariatric Surgery Center of Idaho comparing the two procedures.

FACTS AND MYTHS

THE OPERATION

FACT:

Laparoscopic RNY Gastric Bypass is a difficult operation to perform safely and may require the experience of 100 operations for a surgeon to attain excellence - but that goal can be accomplished. One simply needs to search for an experienced surgeon performing laparoscopic gastric bypass.
-Schauer, P. et al. The learning curve for laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass is 100 cases.
Surgical Endoscopy. Vol. 17, 2003

LAP-BAND is easy to perform and is therefore a "safe" operation.

WEIGHT LOSS

MYTH:

LAP-BAND is "as effective for weight loss as Laparoscopic RNY Gastric Bypass".

FACT:

Six of the best bariatric centers in the country doing Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass have demonstrated "excess body weight loss" (EBWL) of 69 to 84% at one year. We have averaged 82% EBWL at one year in almost 200 patients, and many of our patients reach "ideal body weight".

With LAP-BAND "... weight loss was insufficient in slightly over 40% of the patients..."

A comparison of weight loss with bypass and banding, respectively, in 1200 patients showed EBWL

RISK OF DEATH FROM OPERATION

MYTH:

LAP-BAND is much safer than Laparoscopic RNY Gastric Bypass.

FACT: