Band Myths & Facts

[LoriBecky]

Fills…..Facts and Myths

A fill is basically the band being adjusted with the injection of saline solution through an injection at the site where your port has been implanted.

Fills can be performed earlier than 6 weeks.

Fills are performed at 6-8 weeks. Never before. Some bands are purged but this liquid in the band should never cause retriction, it would put undue tention on the band and either cause an early slip or a pouch dilation and render the procedure useless.

Once I get the band I will lose weight.

Wanting a fill earlier than recomended is usually a bad sign. It happens when patients expect to perform on it’s own. Remember the first two months after your banding is the home stretch, this is when the band permits you to eat less without feeling too hungry. This means you should do your part by keeping the 21 days of liquids, and then solids so it hels in place properly and you lose weight.

The larger band requires more fills.

Sometimes it does. But it does not depend on the band. When you get a larger band it is because one size does not fit all. It also means that you had a excess amount of fat around your stomach that required a band that would fit. If this happenned to you most probably as you lose weight you will notice your band required additional fills. Why you ask? Well simply because that fat around the stomach is dissappearing and the band loostens.

I will request that a samll band be implanted

The only way to logically get the smaller standard band is by pre-surgical weightloss. The more you lose the better your chances are.

I read on the forum that patients need many fills

Well usually you will find that some patients stay on the forums looking for answers they like. Our average number of fills on females is 2-3 and on males is 1-2, in a lifetime. Some folks get 5 but usually something also happened. Patients may have recieved two fills then suddenly they needed a band deflation and then started all over again by the time they reach their adecquate restriction level they are up to five fills. Makes sense? Patients that tend to overrely on the band also get more fills, thinking that restriction will compensate for the inability follow the simple guidelines. Some patients sadly started eating solids before their 21 day liquid phase and have stretched out their pouch permanently. These patients will never reach their weightloss goal unless they get corrective surgery.

Fills performed under fluoroscopy are precise.

Yes they are for many reasons. Even though we are dealing with something as dynamic as the everchanging human body we can get to an aproximation of your ideal restriction in less fills. This means tht the fill performed will be more or less precise at the date performed. You may lose this restriction as your experiment further weightloss, you learn how to chew, select better foods, eat slower etc. We can also see other changes that will let us know if you band is too tight (surely this will cause a complication in weeks) also if it is too loose and you won’t lose any weight. Sometimes it will tell us if the patient is not being sincere with us.

Dr. Ariel Ortiz, MD, FACS

Board Certified Mexican medical doctor under license #2526822