What Do Gastric Sleeve & Adjustable LAP BAND Surgeries Entail?

Using models of the stomach, Soma Weight Loss physician Dr. Joseph Naim explains how the adjustable band works in LAP BAND surgery and talks about why gastric sleeve surgery is one of the most effective surgeries we offer. Learn more about your weight loss surgery options in this video.

Dr. Naim — Adjustable Gastric Band And Sleeve Gastrectomy Procedures, What Do They Entail 

 As you can see, the adjustable gastric system which comes in two different packages, one is the LAP-BAND, and one is the [inaudible 00:00:23] band. It’s basically a silastic ring that gets placed on upper part of stomach. This band helps the patient control his appetite, or her appetite, and also reduce the amount of food that they can eat in every setting. The system has a tube, which is connected to the reservoir, which gets placed under the skin, so nothing is visible.  
 
Difference here versus stomach stapling procedure is that we can adjust the size of this band by injecting some fluid in that chamber. Basically there’s saline that gets injected. And you can see the size of the band gets smaller gradually. And by this adjustment we can control the weight loss. Just like we can make the band tighter if the patient is losing too much weight, not happy. We can make the band looser.  
 
There’s a new procedure that we’ve been providing into my program within the last couple of years, and that’s called a Sleeve Gastrectomy. One of the reasons that I’m a fan of this procedure is that the weight loss is superior to the LAP-BAND procedure, but I like to emphasize that this is more invasive procedure, in the terms that, as you can see in this picture, it involves stapling of the stomach. Not only do we have to staple the stomach, but 80% of the stomach gets removed from the body.  
 
So this operation, obviously, is irreversible, but has great results. There’s no need for adjustment. And also, unlike the gastric bypass procedures, there is no dumping syndrome, there’s no malabsorption, and very uncommon for anybody to get into a vitamin deficiency from this operation. So I like to recommend this operation to any of my patients who come to my office. And after talking about risks and benefits, usually they decide if they want to proceed with the Sleeve Gastrectomy, or the band, or the bypass. So in my program, I offer all of these. And we we can tailor the patient to any of these procedures that we think they can have the best results.

Have Questions? Contact Soma Weight Loss

If you’d like to learn more about the bariatric procedures performed at Soma Weight Loss, we’re here to help. Set up a free consultation at one of our three Los Angeles locations or call us at 855-SOMA-411 (766-2411) for more information. We are here to help!

×