Losing Weight with adjustable Gastric Band Surgery

The secret to losing weight after adjustable gastric band surgery is in the hands of the surgeon, in how he places the band and in the adjustment.

During the adjustable lap band surgery the surgeon will not fill the gastric band or if he does only slightly filled to allow for any swelling of the stomach. Therefore during the first few weeks after surgery you will be able to eat quite large portions of food until the adjustment is done.

The idea of the adjustable gastric band is to allow the doctor to gradually fill the band until there is a point that your food intake decreases to allow weight loss yet enough to remain healthy.

After the surgery is completed, the doctor will need to check if the gastric band is positioned correctly. For this he will ask you to drink a small amount of water and then he will take a series of x-rays. These x-rays are to see the liquid flow into the newly created pouch and then though the restriction and into the normal stomach pouch.

For a small percentage of patients the initial setting or fill for the adjustable gastric band surgery will be enough, but for most they will need to adjust the setting with additional fills.

The first fill will be normally be 6 to 8 weeks after the surgery for the adjustable gastric band surgery to ensure proper healing and then subsequent fills 2 to 4 weeks apart.

Different surgeons will have different speeds of filling the adjustable gastric band, in terms of both the amount of  fill and time between fills. There is no true and hard fast speed but comes down to their experience and if they are aggressive or not.

Before you have your operation it is good for you to discuss with your doctor on post operation gastric banding diets and care. Selecting a good post operation team that will ensure that you get maximum benefit out of your surgery.

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