Gastric Band Operation

[Marsha-old]

A frien of mine from Australia is over weight and has very bad health. He needs to loose weight. I was reading on the forums that there is a hospital that does tin Thailand. Can anyone give any info on it, as it is very expensive in Australia.
Where to get it done and how much?

It is my understanding that it is done in ANY hospital in Thailand.
My understanding is that therapy os also needed and it is a very difficult operation mentally wise. The regime for eating is less than a bowl of soup per meal.
For thise who enjoy eating, this can be very nerve raking but the consequesces are getting very ill.
Look into it throughly as last time I checked, fatality rate was about 8 or 9%.
3 incisions are made and it is done through small cuts UNKESS you have been opened up before as I had and then they tell you that they must fully open you up again That is now 3 reasons I bypassed this operation.

[Narakmak]

I think you're wrong on a number of your facts --

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjustable_gastric_band

Minimally invasive surgery and very low death rate.

Yanhee in Bangkok is a good place to do it.

[Marsilius]

A UK TV programme this week tended to support Narakmak on this one. The surgery was shown being performed on a boy of 18 or so who was over 300 lbs in weight.

The doctors seemed to have little hesitation in going ahead fitting a gastric band once they had confirmed that all his other attempted weight loss methods had failed. Surgery was of the keyhole variety and it seemed a quite straightforward technique. A typical "meal" thereafter was about 3 teaspoons in volume!

Weirdly, though, when the cameras went back to look at the boy after a few months, it was hard to detect any obvious weight loss ( I think they said it was about 30 lbs, which seems comparatively little after only existing on a few teaspoons of food a day).

[Narakmak]

I have a friend in the US who had the procedure. The surgical part was just the beginning. For people who love food (as he does, as I do) there are some very serious implications. Also, food and socializing go together. So it can be very hard to go to restaurants and enjoy sharing food with people when you can only eat a little. Restaurants should offer tapas size portions and prices for such people as this is getting more common. In his case, he eats a lot more than you would expect, but he has to take breaks, and sit down for awhile so he can eat more. Medically, I think it is a success as he is losing a lot of weight and no reason to think he won't lose more. But it is no piece of cake. What I am saying is the after the procedure is a bigger challenge than the procedure itself.

While there are many sucsess stories, there are many failure stories. I have had many a freind die after the proceedure.
I believe that you need to go backand read your link more throughly.
First as stated before, if you have been opened up before which requires a tits to belly button surgery, the simple three incision step cannot be done.
Second, obviously the majority of patients that get this proceedure are overweight for a REASON. If you think that most people can enjoy living on 3 TEASPOONS of soup per meal and not be miserable, your nuts! Then for many months eating only "mushy foods".
Under risks, please note death and while it states that the earlier band had a death rate of 1 - 275 which was horrible, it seems they have this new one which is 1 - 2000. Still not a fun figure.
Of course diabetics which is probably the MAJORITY of people who get this proceedure as overweight people tend to be diabetic more often re prone to severe infections which can lead to death. See the chart on complications where death and infection are listed.
All in all, if I were "tyhat desperate" to spend about $12,000 US on this proceedure, I would finf enough willpower nd tape my damned mouth shut!