We are no longer accepting cases regarding these products.  Due to a terrible Supreme Court ruling, consumers injured by this product are no longer permitted to sue the manufacturers of this device.  We wish we could help, but the Supreme Court has taken the rights of citizens away to protect the profits of medical device manufacturers.  For more information, please read the following New York Times article entitled “Medical Device Ruling Redraws Lines on Lawsuits.

In 2002, a team of medical researchers led by PE O’Brien published an article titled “The laparoscopic adjustable gastric band (Lap-Band): a prospective study of medium-term effects on weight, health and quality of life.” in the journal Obesity Surgery aiming to determine the safety and efficacy of the Allergan LAP-BAND, a laparoscopically-inserted gastric banding system, used to curb obesity.

Researchers write “Obesity is now one of our major public health problems” and that “Effective and acceptable treatment options are needed.  The Lap-Band system is placed laparoscopically and allows adjustment of the level of gastric restriction.”

For data, this team studied 709 “severely obese patients” who used the Allergan LAP-BAND over a period of 6 years.  Thankfully, at the time of the publication, there had been no deaths associated with this group of LAP-BAND users.

However, the team writes “Reoperation has been needed for prolapse (slippage) in 12.5%, erosion of the band into the stomach in 2.8% and for tubing breaks in 3.6%.”

These figures are dramatically higher than those reported by Allergan in the LAP-BAND Warning Label, which purports that slippage will only occur in about 8%, and erosion will occur in only 1.33%.  The O’Brien et al. team found more than a 50% increase in LAP-BAND slippage, and more than double the amount of erosion than reported by the manufacturer.

 

Our Allergan LAP-BAND Lawsuit Information page is a great place to start if you have any questions about the Allergan LAP-BAND.