Vertical Banded Gastroplasty: One Treatment for Esophagitis and/or Weight Gain after Gastric Banding.

Gastric banding (GB) was the method of choice for the surgical treatment of obesity at our institution between 1981 and 1986. We abandoned the method in 1986 because of poor results. Reflux esophagus and weight gain after a period of weight loss were common problems despite attempts at surgical correction. Of the 92 patients who underwent GB, 36 were reoperated with vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG) due to endoscopically verified esophagus, weight gain or both. Postoperatively, the patients reported ameliorated reflux symptoms without any substantial weight gain after the initial weight loss during the study period. The VBG, after GB, was performed with a rate of complications similar to that of primary VBG performed at our institution. Five patients (14%) were reoperated after the conversion with VBG, compared to 11% (15/134) and 55% (51/92) reoperated patients after primary VBG and GB respectively at our Institution. GB, by our technique, seems to be a poor procedure, and VBG is in comparison the method of choice.