Lap band placement may take less time in the operating room, but a 2017 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that lap band patients frequently need follow-up surgery. Researchers reviewed data from 25,000 lap band patients over a 16-year period and found that 20 percent needed additional surgery, compared with 3 to 9 percent for gastric sleeve and gastric bypass.
Second surgeries frequently involve the need to remove the lap band because of leaking, slippage of the band, esophageal dilation, hernia, blood clots, perforated bowel or other problems with bowel function. More than half of lap bands are removed within 10 years of the initial surgery. Sometimes the second surgery is an emergency procedure, when slippage of the band causes extreme pain.