SAN DIEGO — Thirteen percent of patients who underwent laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding required a major reoperation, results from a long-term, single-center study showed.
“We see complications, even many years after surgery,” Dr. Vincenzo Bacci said at the annual meeting of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery. “This information should really be conveyed to our surgical candidates. Lifelong management and surveillance are necessary for these patients.”
He and his associates studied the rate and causes of reoperation in 448 patients who underwent laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding at La Sapienza University in Rome, between 1996 and 2006. In 2002 the perigastric technique was replaced by the pars flaccida approach. Of the 448 patients, 83% were women; their average body mass index was 43 kg/m
Dr. Bacci reported that 59 patients (13%) required a major reoperation for band repositioning/removal or revision, and 29 patients (6%) required a minor reoperation for port complications. The rate of major reoperation was 4.1 per 100 person-years, while the rate of minor reoperation was 2.1 per 100 person-years.
Patients with a BMI of greater than 50 kg/m