title: Two years of practice in adjustable silicone gastric banding (LAP-BAND): evaluation of variations of body mass index, percentage ideal body weight and percentage excess body weight.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In the treatment of morbid obesity, surgery had been the only method of obtaining a good and enduring weight loss. Although the procedure of choice is still a matter of debate, among gastric restriction procedures LAP-BAND has become our first choice.
  
  
  METHODS
  We report the results from 62 morbidly obese patients operated in the period October 1994-December 1996. Their characteristics were: mean age 35.6 years, mean body weight 130.6 kg, mean height 162.3 cm, mean body mass index (BMI) 49.9 kg/m2, mean percentage ideal body weight (%IBW) 215.7 and mean excess weight (EW) 69.57 kg.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-four months after surgery we found a mean BMI of 39.3, a mean %IBW of 168.6 and a mean % EW loss of 88.5. We removed the band in two patients: one after 9 months because of stoma stenosis and pouch enlargement in a woman who had been lost at follow-up, and the other for gastric slippage occurring after 18 months due to incorrect fixation of the band.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results led us to consider LAP-BAND as the surgical approach for severe obesity among those patients selected for gastric restriction; indeed, it was very safe as well as effective and was rarely followed by complications.
authors.affiliation: University Federico II of Naples, Department of General and Oncological Surgery, Italy.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Forestieri
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Meucci
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Luca
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Formato
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: De Werra
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chiacchio
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015391:Gastroplasty / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009767:Obesity, Morbid / Q000601:surgery*; D012086:Reoperation