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.“

A paper published in the November, 2005 edition of Surgery titled “Obese teenagers treated by Lap-Band System: the Italian experience.” lived up to its name and evaluated “results of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding in obese teenagers” chosen from “the database of the Italian Collaborative Study Group for Lap-Band”, identifying 58 patients.

The authors of this study, L. Angrisani et al., found that “Overall postoperative complications occurred in 6/58 (10.3%). The band was removed in 6/58 (10.3%) patients for gastric erosion (3 patients), psychologic, intolerance (2 patients), and in the remaining patient was converted 2 years after surgery (BMI 31) to gastric bypass or gastric pouch dilatation.”

At 1, 3, 5, and 7 years’ follow-up, percent excess weight loss was found to be 45.6%, 39.7%, 43.7%, and 55.6%, respectively (plus/minus standard deviation).

Though effective, these rates of complications are higher than those reported by the LAP-BAND manufacturer, Allergan.  As such, many LAP-BAND lawsuits were filed.

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