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Outcomes

We have written many papers on the outcomes after Lapband® placement and PDFs of these papers are available on this website. The best single summary paper of the principal outcomes is the report of the first 700 patients we have treated lapband-results-700-patients.pdf.

This paper includes information on the weight loss, the health changes, the changes in quality of life and discussion of the early complications and late adverse events. Other review papers are included in the references attached.

In summary the following are reasonable expectations from the current techniques and data. Note that these expectations are a little different from the paper on the first 700 patients as we have improved the technique of operation and follow up since then.

  • Weight Loss – There should be loss of 45 – 50% of excess weight by the end of the first year and loss of 55 – 60 % of excess weight by 2 years. There can still be further weight loss after 2 years because of the adjustability of the band but it tends to be slow.
  • Health – all of the illnesses that are caused or made worse by obesity will be expected to be totally or partially resolved. We have studied most of these and references and PDFs of papers covering them are attached.
  • Quality of Life – is improved and the improvement is durable. We have measured the improvement in quality of life in detail (insert link to QOL PDF) and have shown it to be durable at least to 4 years.
  • Death – is very rare as a consequence of Lapband® placement. A comprehensive review of the literature showed a perioperative mortality rate of 1 in 2000. In our own group, we have treated more than 2700 patients without a death.
  • Complications – are also rare around the time of the surgery – maybe 1 – 2% chance of something happening that will keep you in hospital longer that anticipated or mean that you need to come back in. All problems that have occurred are treatable.
  • Late Adverse Events – as with most things, something can move or shift or break or change in some way to cause the band not to work optimally. This may occur years after the operation. On our current data the likelihood of needing to have something fixed up is about 5% chance during the first 5 years. Everything that can happen can be fixed and generally can be fixed laparoscopically.