Laparoscopic adjustable gastric band erosion with intragastric band migration: A rare but serious complication

Abstract

Although laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding is considered the most minimally invasive surgical technique for the treatment of morbid obesity, the procedure has a reported overall complication rate of up to 26%. Among the various complications, gastric band erosion with intragastric band migration is the most worrisome because of the risk of subsequent obstruction, peritonitis, and sepsis. Therefore, prompt and accurate diagnosis is crucial during imaging evaluation of these patients in the late postoperative setting. In this article, we report a case of a 47-year-old woman with a gastric band that had eroded into the gastric wall with intragastric migration demonstrating classic findings on fluoroscopic and computed tomography imaging.