Obesity surgery has come a long way over the last few years and modern types of surgery such as gastric lap banding are without doubt much safer and have far fewer complications than early types of open gastric bypass surgery. Nevertheless, there are still risks and these ought to be fully discussed with your surgeon before you undergo surgery.

Gastric lap band surgery has several risks that are specific to this form of surgery and also has the same risks which come will any major surgery. Additionally, there are some general risks that are seen with any surgery involving patients who are overweight.

The first and most serious risk is that of death occurring either during surgery or immediately following and directly related to surgery. At this early stage (gastric lap band surgery has been around for approximately 13 years now and has only been licensed for use in the United States since 2001) there have been very few deaths reported and it is not easy to give a figure, though it is generally held that the risk of death from gastric lap band surgery is less than 1%.

It is however interesting to see that that in one Australian study no deaths at all were reported in a group of some 2,700 patients who have undergone laparoscopic adjustable gastric band surgery since 1994. It should be noted however that Australia has been in the forefront of establishing the use of the laparoscopic adjustable gastric band and that more than ninety percent of all weight loss surgeries undertaken in Australia now use this method. This is significant as, in interpreting data from this particular study, you have to bear in mind that the experience of the surgeon is an important factor in terms of both risk and complication. Surgeons with a lot of experience of this technique exhibit a far higher rate of success.

Several of the risks encountered during surgery are general as opposed to lap band specific and are surgical risks to do with things like as your age, weight, reaction to anesthetic and the presence of disease (whether or not this is directly associated with your weight problem). The main lap band specific risk during surgery is that of gastric perforation (a tear occurring in the stomach wall) which happens in approximately 1% of all cases.

By far and away the majority of complications occur after surgery and the majority of patients will experience some form of complication in the weeks and months after their operation. These complications will not necessarily be serious and will range from very mild to quite severe.

Around half of all patients will suffer varying degrees of nausea and vomiting and in the region of one-third of patients will also suffer from regurgitation (gastroesophageal reflux). In the region of a quarter of patients will experience band slippage and approximately one patient in seven will experience a blockage to the passage joining the two parts of the stomach.

Other mild to severe difficulties after surgery can include the erosion of the band into the stomach and twisting or leakage of the access port. Problems with swallowing, constipation and diarrhea are also fairly common.

In a very few patients (under one percent) a whole series of non-serious difficulties can arise including gastritis, hiatal hernia, inflammation of the pancreas, dehydration, abdominal pain, gas, chest pain and infection.

In general gastric lap band surgery, particularly when it is carried out laparoscopically, carries fewer risks and complications than other types of weight loss surgery, but the risks are still substantial and ought to be fully discussed with your surgeon and fully understood before any decision is taken to undergo surgery.