a. Before the operation

The doctor will ask you not to eat after midnight on the night before the operation.
If you take medicines on a daily basis you must inform your surgeon or one of the people on our team. If you take aspirin, anti-coagulants or anti-inflammatory medicines (for arthritis, arthrosis, etc.) you must inform your surgeon. This is an important point which enables us to set the date on which to stop taking the medicines prior to surgery.

Before surgery, a member of the medical team will fit a fine needle or catheter into one of your blood vessels in order to administer the medicines required during the operation.
In some cases the laparoscopic technique is not possible. If it turns out to be impossible to get a good sight of the organs or to manipulate them, your doctor may opt for open surgery. This procedure is performed under general anaesthesia.

b. After the operation

When you awake after laparoscopic surgery you may feel pain in the shoulders. This pain is due to the fact that the abdomen is inflated with carbon dioxide to create an area to work in. It may be the case that not all of this gas was evacuated at the end of the operation. However, the remaining gas will be quickly absorbed without harming your body.
The pain is temporary and goes away quickly within a few days of the operation.
It is possible that you will have a catheter in your stomach for a day to prevent vomiting.
The pain felt after the operation is often limited, but some patients do require medication to take away the pain. No other specific medicines are required after the operation.
As we have described above, you will need to follow a strict diet after surgery. Make sure you follow the advice of the obesity team.
On average patients stay in hospital for 48 hours but this will depend on your surgeon.
You will be encouraged to resume your normal activities extremely carefully as soon as you leave the hospital. Your doctor and his team will tell you when you can resume your normal daily activities and which activities you can best avoid.

c. A few useful tips

Regular check-ups:
It is very important that you are examined regularly as an outpatient after the operation! Your doctor and his team will discuss a personal schedule of appointments with you. In the first phase there is normally an examination every four weeks, while later the appointments will be further apart. During the first 18 months after surgery, your SAGB can be gradually filled with a fluid. Normally, once your weight has stabilised, examinations are made on an annual basis.

However, always contact your doctor in good time in the case of:

• Prolonged fever
• Shivers
• Bleeding
• Increased swelling of the abdomen or increased pain
• Prolonged nausea or prolonged vomiting
• rolonged coughing or difficulty breathing
• Seepage of fluid from any wound