LAP-BAND® Adjustment: How Is This Performed? - Dr. Liu (VIDEO)

Dr. Liu:
In a LAP-BAND® adjustment, the patients come, the patients return to clinic and they come in and have a routine clinic visit. We have them lay down on the exam table. We numb it up and inject a little needle through the skin through the fat into the port device, which I am holding here. And this allows us to access the entire band, which is within the abdominal cavity.

And it’s not another surgery. It’s basically an injection of IV fluid, sterile, injectable saline that goes into this port through the tubing into the band balloon itself. So a lot of people will wonder, how many am I going to have and does it hurt? We numb up the skin so it does not hurt and it usually is, only is about two to four adjustments for the first years, zero to two the second year and it’s variable beyond that, but it’s very low maintenance as opposed to what we used to think that people were going to get adjusted up and down all over the place. It is very rare that they get adjusted once they are set.

But the adjustments are crucial to continue the weight loss process. What will happen is people will lose about 30 to 40 pounds, plateau, and then need another adjustment, get another injection of saline to allow them to lose some more weight.

So this port is not visible to the eye. Nothing is outside the body. It’s all underneath and in a lot of people you can’t even see the scar for this port. And this is non-accessible unless we use a specialized needle to access this gasket. It’s a needle that will not injure this little gasket and it allows the patient to get as many adjustments as they want.

Some people will get six in the first year. Some people will get one in their first year. But in general, it is done by the surgeon, and it is a specialized procedure to access this port, but it’s not another surgical procedure. It’s just a little numbing medicine and a little injection of IV fluid into the port itself.

About Dr. Carson Liu, M.D., F.A.C.S.:
Dr. Liu received his medical degree from the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine and completed his internship, residencies and research fellowship at UCLA Medical Center. In 1998, Dr. Liu was appointed Assistant Professor of Surgery at UCLA Medical School where he continued to hone his skills in clinical practice, teaching and research. Dr. Liu has conducted extensive research and is widely published in the fields of Bariatric and gastrointestinal surgery; he is nationally recognized in his field and has lectured extensively to professional societies on these subjects. Dr. Liu is board certified in General Surgery and over the course of his career has performed more than 2600 bariatric surgeries.

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• Bariatric Surgery
• Weight Loss