Adjustable Gastric Band Procedures, What Should Patients Do When This Is Not Effective? - Dr. Blackstone (VIDEO)

Dr. Blackstone:
Most patients who have an adjustable gastric band who have not been successful with losing all of their weight, it’s usually because for some reason they just don’t quite work well with that tool, and what usually happens is, they are not able to really control their behavior completely in regards to food with just the band in place.

And so, the band often will get tightened to the point even that maybe they even dilate the bottom of the esophagus because they’re just too tight, but they are still eating too much. So, in that situation we’ll take the fluid out of the band and then before we decide to convert them to a gastric bypass, what we will do is we will actually start to fill them again and then maybe use medications as a way of cutting their hunger and again, try to see if we can teach them how to use the band using the medications as an adjunctive therapy.

This kind of combination therapy is fairly new, and we’ve just started using it, but it seems to be very effective in that small group of people who can’t quite get the knack of the band.

If none of that works and in the end they have only been able to get off a portion of their weight, and maybe they have type 2 diabetes and they need to get all their weight off to get rid of it, then they really have to go a kind of upgrade to a procedure that is higher risk, but also more effective.

About Dr. Robin Blackstone, M.D.:
Dr. Robin Blackstone is a surgeon and Director at the Scottsdale Bariatric Center and Medical Director at the Scottsdale Healthcare Bariatric Program. She is one of the few women surgeons in the world specializing in the Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass. With her practice focused entirely on Weight Loss Surgery, she is committed to providing patients with the very best care possible.

Visit Dr. Blackstone at Scottsdale Bariatric Center

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