Non-Surgical Treatment

Dieting, exercise, and medication have long been regarded as the conventional methods to achieve weight loss. Sometimes, these efforts are successful in the short term. However, for people who are morbidly obese, the results rarely last. Recent research reveals that conventional methods of weight loss generally fail to produce permanent weight loss. Several studies have shown that patients on diets, exercise programs, or medication are able to lose approximately 10% of their body weight but tend to regain two-thirds of it within one year, and almost all of it within five years.2 Another study found that less than 5% of patients in weight loss programs were able to maintain their reduced weight after five years.

Surgical Treatment

Surgery is the only long term successful therapy for morbid obesity. Over the years, weight-loss surgery has proven to be a successful method for the treatment of morbid obesity.4

• Weight loss surgery saves lives
• People live longer after weight loss surgery
• It is not a cure for morbid obesity, it is a tool that will allow you to lose weight

Surgical options have continued to evolve and South Texas Lap Band is pleased to be able to offer patients different weight loss surgery procedures including the LAP-BAND ® System surgery, Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass and Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy.

1. Weight-Control Information Network (WIN) of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), a part of NIH, NIDDK statistics represent US adults over the age of 20.
2. American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) / American College of Endocrinology (ACE) Statement on the Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Obesity (1998 Revision). AACE/ACE Obesity Task Force. Endocr Pract. 1998; Vol. 4 No. 5: 297-330.
3. Kramer FM et al. Long-term follow-up of behavioral treatment for obesity: patterms of weight regain among men and women. Int J Obes 1989; 13:123-136.
4. SAGES/ASBS Guidelines for Laparoscopic and Conventional Surgical Treatment of Morbid Obesity. American Society for Bariatric Surgery. http://asbs.org/html/guidelines.html
5. Executive summary: Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding for the treatment of obesity (update and re-appraisal). The Australian Safety and Efficacy Register of New Interventional Procedures - Surgical (ASERNIPS) 2002.