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 a paper published in a 2006 edition of Obesity Surgery, titled “Re-operation after laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding leads to a further decrease in BMI and obesity-related co-morbidities: results in 33 patients”, R. Schouten et al. write “Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) is a safe technique with few direct postoperative complications. However, long-term complications such as slippage and pouch dilatation are a well-known problem and re-operations are necessary in a substantial number of patients.” In this paper, “results of laparoscopic re-operations after LAGB are evaluated” in 33 patients.
Of these 33 patients who suffered failed gastric banding systems, “29 patients had major re-operation and 4 patients minor re-operation under local anesthesia”. The team writes “The cause of band dysfunction was anterior slippage (n=17), band erosion (n=5), band intolerance (n=3), posterior slippage (n=2) and band leakage (n=2)” and that symptoms of band failure were “vomiting (n=16), pyrosis (n=13), nausea (n=8), retrosternal pain (n=11) and regurgitation (n=5).”
In this series of patients, 19 could have their bands replaced laparoscopically, while “in 3 patients, the laparoscopic procedure was converted to open surgery” and “5 patients underwent conversion to a bypass procedure”. Thankfully, there were no complications after surgery other than wound infections in two patients. While the body mass indexes of these patients continued to decline after reoperation, “3 patients (9%) again developed anterior slippage and a second laparoscopic re-operation was necessary.”
Sadly, the rate for primary complications associated with LAP-BANDs – a popular brand of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding system by Allergan, Inc. – is greatly understated in the LAP-BAND Warning Label and as such, a number of 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.