Retrospective study of laparascopic adjustable silicone gastric banding for the treatment of morbid obesity: results and complications in 127 patients

Objectives: Laparoscopic gastric banding is currently the most popular surgical technique for morbid obesity. This widespread use of surgery has been evaluated by a number of clinical studies, particularly on weight changed Methods: In a retrospective study of 127 obese patients operated between 1996 and 2000, data were collected for weight change, medical and surgical complications. Results: Of 127 patients, failures of gastric banding were noted during 2 surgical operations. The average follow-up period was 33 +/- 20 months. Average weight loss in all patients was 19.9 +/- 5.3 kg (15.3 +/- 4.2%). No difference in weight loss was observed between diabetic and non-diabetic patients. During the follow-up, data were collected on 53 complications (42.4% of all gastric banding operations). 3 main types of complication were found: access port related complications (22.6% of the total), band slippage (20.7% of the total) and tubing related complications (16.9% of the total). No prognostic factor for these complications could be identified from multivariate analysis. Conclusions: Our results are very similar to those of other weight evolution studies. We found that there was a significant incidence of surgical and medical complications during the follow-up because of the meticulous way all complications were recorded, even the most insignificant. This morbidity must be borne in mind before surgery is performed.