Laparoscopic adjustable gastric band

Only a fraction of morbidly obese patients have come forward for bariatric surgery. This article confirms that the laparoscopic adjustable gastric band (LAGB) is a safe, effective, primary weight-loss operation for morbidly obese patients. The LAGB offers a simple, genuinely minimally invasive approach, with the potential to be attractive to many more patients. The key questions are whether it is effective in the long term and whether it is safe. The midterm data confirm that, so far, LAGB is living up to its early promise as an effective tool. LAGB surgery is safe, and the change to the parsflaccida approach will lead to even higher patient satisfaction and lower incidence of band removal.