Background: Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) is one of the commonest bariatric procedures in the UK. This study reports our experience with this procedure over the last 10 years.
Methods: A prospectively maintained database of all the patients undergoing LAGB at our centre between March 2000 and August 2010 was analysed.
Results: Five hundred seventy-five patients underwent LAGB at our centre. There was no mortality in this series. Early (30-day) morbidity rate was 2.2 %. Late complications (20 %) comprised: 78 repositioning of the inflation port in 65 patients, repositioning of band in 24 patients (4 %), removal of band in 20 patients (3.4 %), conversion to bypass in 41 patients (7 %), diagnostic laparoscopy in 1 patient and subtotal gastrectomy in 1 patient. Median follow-up was 29 months. The median of percentage of weight loss (%WL) and excess body weight loss (EBWL) was 18.3 and 40 %, respectively, at ≥ 5 years post-LAGB. Patients with body mass index (BMI) over 50 kg/m(2) were compared to those with BMI ≤ 50 kg/m(2). No significant difference was noted in the weight loss between both of these groups. No significant difference was noted with regards to weight loss between patients <60 and >60 years of age.
Conclusions: In this cohort of patients, %WL and EBWL were 18.3 and 40 % ≥ 5 years after LAGB, respectively, and early and late complication rates were 2.2 and 20 %, respectively. Majority of late complications were in the first 100 patients. Multifactorial causes included the surgical learning curve and patient selection process.