New Approach in Surgical Treatment of Morbid Obesity: Laparoscopic Gastric Banding

BACKGROUND: gastric banding has been performed for morbid obesity, with the last nine patients having a laparoscopic approach. MATERIALS: forty-five patients who had undergone primary operations for morbid obesity between 1986 and 1993 were selected for retrospective analysis. All patients had undergone gastric banding. Average pre-operative BMI was 50.9 (kg m(2)) and average pre-operative weight was 135.1 kg. RESULTS: the 3 year mean post-operative BMI reached 28.7 and the 3 year mean post-operative weight loss was 55.7 kg. Blood pressure significantly decreased from the mean 151/ 96 mmHg to l32/90 mmHg at 1-year follow-up. There were no significant changes noted in the levels of RBC, electrolytes and transaminase. There were post-operative wound-healing complications in 18.1% of the patients, wound discharge in 8.8% and incisional hernia in 8.8% of the patients. In 1993 we commenced laparoscopic gastric banding which enabled us to shorten the hospital stay and decrease post-operative complications. CONCLUSION: we are achieving the same good weight-loss results with the laparoscopic technique as after 'open' laparotomy gastric banding.