A gastric band is a surgery that can be safely performed in a private clinic abroad and can help with weight loss. The gastric band limits the amount of food you can eat by making you feel full after eating small amounts of food. The NHS refunded treatment can be performed abroad where the prices will be lower and there will not be a long NHS waiting list. After gastric band surgery, your doctor can adjust the band to make food pass more slowly or quickly through your stomach.
In a private clinic, you will receive general anaesthesia before gastric band surgery. You will be asleep and unable to feel pain. You will save money as the treatment abroad in a private clinic is much cheaper than in the UK.
During gastric band surgery
The surgeon will make 1 to 5 small surgical cuts in your abdomen. Through these small cuts, the surgeon will place a camera and the instruments needed to perform the gastric band surgery. Your surgeon will place a band around the upper part of your stomach to separate it from the lower part. This creates a small pouch that has a narrow opening that goes into the larger, lower part of your stomach. The surgery does not involve any cutting or stapling inside your belly. Surgery may take only 30 to 60 minutes if your surgeon has done a lot of these treatments.
When you eat after having surgery, the small pouch will fill up quickly. You will feel full after eating just a small amount of food. The food in the small upper pouch will slowly empty into the main part of your stomach.
Who qualifies for gastric band surgery?
Doctors often use the following body mass index (BMI) measures to identify people who may be most likely to benefit from weight-loss surgery. A normal BMI is between 18.5 and 25. The NHS recommends surgery only if you are unable to lose weight and you have:
- A BMI of 40 or more. This most often means that men are 100 pounds (45 kg) overweight and women are 80 pounds (36 kg) over their ideal weight.
- A BMI of 35 or more and a serious medical condition that might improve with weight loss. Some of these conditions are sleep apnoea, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.
After the surgery treatment abroad you will probably be able to leave the private clinic on the same day. Many people are able to begin their normal activities 1 or 2 days after going home. Most people take 1 week off from work. You will stay on liquids or mashed-up foods for 2 or 3 weeks after surgery. You will slowly add soft foods, then regular foods, to your diet. By six weeks after surgery, you will probably be able to eat regular foods.
Your surgeon can make the band tighter or looser any time after you have this surgery. It may be tightened or loosened if you are:
- Having problems eating
- Not losing enough weight
- Vomiting after you eat
Laparoscopic gastric band removal abroad
Fortunately, removal of the gastric band is a relatively straightforward treatment abroad, and there are several options for converting to another weight-loss treatment to maintain and improve long-term weight loss and health problems.
If your initial gastric band surgery was performed laparoscopically (using 5 or 6 small incisions in your abdomen), it will likely be possible for your surgery removal treatment to be performed laparoscopically as well. Gastric band removal surgery can be performed abroad where the prices will be lower and there will not be a long NHS waiting list. Gastric surgery abroad will save money as the treatment abroad is usually cheaper than in the UK.
During the gastric band removal surgery, your surgeon will
- Cutaway the “capsule” that your body has formed around the band
- Cut the band itself
- Pull out the band from around the stomach and remove it along with the tube
- Gastric Plication
The NHS refunds gastric band surgeries abroad if you are the NHS waiting list. Surgery abroad could be an alternative you can afford.
It is possible to receive gastric band pre-treatment and after treatment consultation in London.
Now NHS allows you to bypass the NHS queue for gastric band surgery, by reimbursing costs of treatment, if you receive gastric band surgery in private treatment abroad.
