Adjustable Gastric Band Evaluation Clinic

At the New Life Center for Bariatric Surgery the goal is to optimize patients experience and weight loss after laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding.  Our in office band evaluation clinic allows us to efficiently evaluate your need for a band adjustment.  All adjustments are performed under fluoroscopic (x-ray) guidance.  This serves as an outstanding teaching tool providing immediate feedback and visual understanding of how the band really works for the patient.

During the evaluation, we will assess the need for an adjustment with a dietary questioner and interview.  If an adjustment is needed, the skin will be prepped, numbed with an anesthetic and the band port will be accessed with x-ray guidance.  The patient then stands and a barium esophagram is used to assess the health of the esophagus, the band position, the pouch size, the tightness of the band and whether the band has slipped!  Using sterile saline, the band tightness is adjusted.

Patients are instructed to return to a liquid diet for 24 hours, then to progress slowly to their current diet phase over the following 48 hours. Evaluations are performed appropriately every two months the first year and then approximately every 4-6 months thereafter.