New/Improved Band

[Sarah.R 2]

Most band surgeons have switched to the AP bands which stands for Advanced Platform

The APS (small) holds 10cc

The APL (large) holds 14cc

Australian surgeons do lots of band surgery and they've had the AP bands for years and are seeing better weight loss and fewer pouch dilations ("slips").

The new bands (AP) are also easier to unbuckle if you would need the band repositioned due to pouch dilation.

The REALIZE band is the Ethicon Company band. It too has been in Europe since the early 1990's. It has a single size so everyone has the same band. It has slight differences from the Allergan bands but the research on weight loss is very similar to the existing Allergan bands (APS, APL).

Hopefully, now that two companies have bands on the market the price of plastic will go down.

I'm in australia and america has a extremely higher risk of obesity compaired to australia so to me that doesn't make sense that australia does more bands but when I go to see my surgeon I'll definetly be asking what kind of band he puts in.

[DrWatkins 5]

The "360 balloon" band is the new Allergan band called Advanced Platform. It comes in two sizes, AP - standard and AP - large. The standard holds 10cc; the large holds 14cc. When we place an Allergan band (as opposed to REALIZE band), we always use the AP bands. It seems to have better restriction, less chance of dilated pouch (slippage) and fewer food intolerances. The Australians have had the AP bands for years and they like them as well compared to the older Allergan (formerly Inamed) bands which were smaller and the balloons did not come 360-degrees - they stopped at the buckle.

hope that helps

[jtorie 0]

Hey all!

Just prior to surgery (while being prep'd) when my surgeon came to speak with me, he told me that I was getting a New Improved version of the band. My surgery was just a week ago (Nov. 27). He told me that on the old band the adjustable part only went 320 degrees aroud the band but that on the new model that I was getting it went 360 degrees. Better and more even control with this one. Yeah me!

Just curious if anyone else here was told they were getting the new model. Also, even though I felt I had researched it well, I didn't know that (about the degrees around) until he told me just before surgery. Just me on this?

Not concerned, only curious if anyone else got the new model.

I was told the same thing will be banded March 18. Glad I waited two years to do this so I could take advantage of a more effective band. My surgeon also stated that this new band has shown better results than GB. We'll see.

[SueSue 0]

Hello D. Watkins,

Thank you for taking the time to help all of us and for reading our posts. Today I went for my 4th fill and asked what kind of band I have for the third time. They did not have it written down. I was told by one of the employees that it would hold 500 ccs. Second time she has told me that. I said to her, I want to know what kind I have and the size please. The doctor came in and I asked him. He said I had an AP band. He looked at my records and saw it was not written down so he proceeded to tell me it was an AP small. Then he said even though I was not one of his bigger patients I had a lot of fat around my stomach which is usually related to heart disease and diabeties. I am a diabetic. Did he mean to say that I had the larger AP band? I have 8.3 ccs at the present time. I had 7.5 before today and had no restriction.

[Sarah.R 2]

Hello D. Watkins,

Thank you for taking the time to help all of us and for reading our posts. Today I went for my 4th fill and asked what kind of band I have for the third time. They did not have it written down. I was told by one of the employees that it would hold 500 ccs. Second time she has told me that. I said to her, I want to know what kind I have and the size please. The doctor came in and I asked him. He said I had an AP band. He looked at my records and saw it was not written down so he proceeded to tell me it was an AP small. Then he said even though I was not one of his bigger patients I had a lot of fat around my stomach which is usually related to heart disease and diabeties. I am a diabetic. Did he mean to say that I had the larger AP band? I have 8.3 ccs at the present time. I had 7.5 before today and had no restriction.

Well you just wrote that he said you had the small AP band so obviously you have the small band, if you had the larger band he would have said "You have the 14cc AP band that is larger" Correct?

[Angelyco 0]

Thanks all for this information. I have my first visit in a week and I was going to ask about the AP band--I hope it is standard now, but just in case they still use the older ones, I'll make sure to mention that the company does exchanges!

Surgery is a big step for me and I want to get the most out of it, which means getting the AP band.