Can Lap Band Be Done Several Years After a Gastric Bypass to Start Losing Weight Again?

The best way to prevent weight gain after gastric bypass is to maintain a healthy lifestyle which includes regular excercise and adequate caloric intake. Most patients do gain some weight several years after a bypass procedure and this varies from 10 to 15 pounds.

In selected cases, a lap band may be placed around the gastric pouch via a laparocopic approach with somewhat adequate results. Gaining 50 lbs alone is not an indication for this, there are other criteria involved such as your co-morbidities, current BMI, size of the pouch, etc. This can be a more difficult operation than the original gastric bypass so carefully analyze your options with your surgeon.

Without knowing your case, any doctor can't answer this question with certainty. In a gastric bypass staples are used to separate your stomach. Rarely, but sometimes, a mechanical error can occur and the line of staples could open up. To check for that your doctor would do an upper GI swallow study or an endoscopy (this is study with light sedation where the doctor puts a camera in your abdomen to check out what's going on).  The small opening at the top of your stomach can open slightly and stretch so it can and will stretch. However, not that much. In fact, if the surgery was done properly you are working with a stomach that is smaller than before so it's really hard to gain back all the weight. My guess is you are lighter than you were before, but you are frustrated that you had a gain back in weight and 50 pounds is definitely significant. I don't know what your start point was so you most likely have lost weight, but you aren't where you want to be ideally. Investigating surgical options is definitely worth considering at this point because 50 extra pounds is a lot to carry around each and every day. That said, were you eating properly? Did you exercise? Have you taken a stress management class? Perhaps there's something medical like thyroid problems. You NEVER want to jump to a second surgery until you understand why the effects of the first surgery didn't last. That said, if you do a thorough follow-up. Get some second opinions, find out there's nothing medically or mechanically wrong there is no reason a LabBand couldn't help you.