Safer Care Victoria’s Best Care resources support patients and healthcare providers to have conversations and make decisions together about the most appropriate pathways for care.
This resource, developed for clinicians, details a specific elective surgery procedure that should now only be done for specific indications. Evidence-based recommendations that detail ‘best care’ pathways should be discussed with your patient to determine the most appropriate pathway of care.
Advice
A gastroscopy to investigate reflux in a person with a gastric band should not be done as the first step.
When is the procedure indicated?
If reflux persists for a person after removing fluid from the gastric band, then a gastroscopy, alongside other investigations, can be considered.
Best care recommendations
For a person with a gastric band presenting with reflux symptoms, fluid should be removed from the band as the first step of management. Achieving a good balance between weight loss and reflux symptoms is ideal.
If releasing fluid from the band does not relieve reflux symptoms, the health care provider should arrange a barium swallow. A referral to a specialist for further investigation should be arranged, if required.
A gastroscopy can be considered, at the appropriate time, to further investigate reflux.
Evidence
Burton PR, Brown WA, Laurie C, Korin A, Yap K, Richards M, et al. Pathophysiology of laparoscopic adjustable gastric ba Specialist clinics resources patient in the emergency department. Emergency Medicine Australasia. 2011 Apr;23(2):186-94.