Adjustable gastric bands are growing in popularity as a treatment for morbid obesity -- defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or higher. Such obesity increased by a whopping 225 per cent between 1990 and 2003, according to researchers at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont. Obesity is a risk factor for heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and some cancers.
What you need to know about gastric banding
1. The stomach is reduced to about the size of a golf ball
The band is an inflatable silicone ring about five centimetres in circumference that divides the stomach into a small upper pouch and a much-larger lower portion. The upper pouch expands when you eat solid food, causing you to feel full quickly. The band controls food emptying into the lower stomach, fooling your brain into thinking you are full. A doctor can make the opening bigger or smaller (depending on whether you want to speed up or slow down the food emptying process and therefore the rate of weight loss) by injecting or removing liquid (usually a salt solution) through a reservoir placed deep under the skin of the abdominal wall. Patients can lose up to 60 per cent of their excess weight, says Dr. Nicolas Christou, the director of the bariatric surgery program at McGill University Health Centre in Montreal.
2. You have to be very obese
You typically need to have a BMI of 40 or more or a BMI of 35 with obesity-related medical complications such as high blood pressure, sleep apnea or diabetes. This rule applies to other weight-loss surgeries as well. Some provincial health-care plans pay for such surgery, but waiting lists are uniformly long, according to Christou.
3. Surgery at private clinics is relatively expensive
In Canada, the adjustable gastric banding procedure costs between $15,000 and $17,500, depending on who performs it and where. For more information on private clinics that may offer gastric band surgery, go to the Find Private Clinics web site.
Page 1 of 2 – Learn about two other surgical options for weight loss on page 2.
