Surgical operations for the control of severe obesity are based on one or both of two principles. The first is restriction, where the amount of calories or food ingested is controlled by limiting the space available to receive food. "Restrictive" procedures decrease or limit the intake of food, giving a feeling of "fullness" much more readily. The second principle is malabsorption, where the absorption of food is limited. "Malabsorptive" procedures cause incomplete "digestion" or "absorption" of food intake. Adjustable Gastric Banding is a restrictive procedure.

Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding (LAGB) is a minimally invasive procedure that laparoscopically implants a device into the abdomen that restricts the amount of food one can eat at one time. The procedure can be reversed if necessary. It came out of clinical trials with the FDA in 1996 and hundreds of thousands of them have been implanted worldwide.

In this procedure, a hollow band made of special material is placed around the stomach near its upper end, creating a small pouch and a narrow passage into the larger remainder of the stomach. The band is then inflated with a salt solution. It can be tightened or loosened over time to change the size of the passage by increasing or decreasing the amount of salt solution.

The video below depicts the LAP-BANDŽ laparoscopic adjustable gastric band surgery.

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Click here to read more about benefits and side effects.