Fill out the form below and have a free Lap-Band® information packet sent to your home.
Sign up to attend a free Lap-Band® informational seminar. To learn more about the date and times of our Lap-Band® seminars, please visit our Seminar Page.
Bryan J. Anderson, Director of the Minimally Invasive Bariatric Program, is a native Idahoan and a graduate of the University of Idaho in addition to the University of Arizona College of Medicine. As a General Surgeon, Dr. Anderson performs many other operations in addition to bariatric LAP-BAND® surgery.
Currently Dr. Anderson serves as Chairman of the Operating Room Committee at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Dr. Anderson's office has also been deemed a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.
For more information about Dr. Anderson, please visit our About page.
Effective February 28, 2011, procedures where the LAP-BAND is used in patients with Class I obesity (BMI of 30-35) and at least one comorbidity can be counted toward surgeon, hospital and freestanding outpatient facility volumes.
Gastric LAP-BAND® surgery has many distinct advantages over other weight loss surgery procedures. The recovery time for Dr. Anderson's patients is minimal. Patients typically stay overnight and go home the next day due to the procedure's minimally invasive approach. The LAP-BAND® procedure is performed "laparoscopically", which means the gastric band is placed with thin surgical instruments and small incisions. Laproscopic instruments have small cameras that allow the gastric LAP-BAND® to be placed around the upper part of the stomach without cutting or stapling, resulting in faster recovery time.
How Does it Work?
The LAP-BAND® (i.e., "gastric band") is an inflatable device that is placed around the upper area of the stomach. By cinching the top of the stomach, two things occur. First and most obvious, your stomach becomes smaller and logically a smaller stomach means that you will not be able to eat as much. Second, cinching the top area of the stomach creates a little pouch that slows the emptying process into the stomach. The combination of these two factors causes patients to eat less and feel fuller for a longer period of time. The lap-band is inflated and adjusted through a tiny access port under the skin. Since finding the right size for your stomach can be a matter of trial and error, your surgeon injects or removes saline from the lap-band to increase or decrease restriction which limits the amount of food you can eat.
The decision to have weight loss surgery is not to be taken lightly. The aim of this site is to provide information in order to help you decide whether obesity surgery is right for you and whether or not you are a candidate for LAP-BAND® surgery.