Australian Family Physician audio

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Australian Family Physician is the official journal of The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. AFP aims to provide relevant evidence based, clearly articulated information to Australian GPs to assist them in providing the highest quality patient care; applicable to the varied geographic and social contexts in which GPs work and to all GP roles as clinician, researcher, educator, practice team member and opinion leader.
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The laparoscopic adjustable gastric band (LAGB) for obesity

Wendy Brown discusses the LAGB procedure and the importance of follow up and a multidisciplinary approach to achieve sustained weight loss and manage problems and complications. Sustained weight loss and improved quality of life following a LAGB procedure depends on a multidisciplinary team (including surgeon, GP, nurse, dietician and psychologist) to meet patient needs of band adjustments, ongoing education about food choices and exercise, monitoring for nutritional and device complications and coping with psychological issues. Roles for the GP in the team include monitoring for ‘alert symptoms’ of volume reflux, nocturnal aspiration, regular regurgitation or vomiting which may indicate a complication; reinforce healthy eating and exercise messages; and adjusting the doses of antihypertensive and diabetic medications as weight loss occurs. When the amount of fluid in the band is optimal the patient feels satisfied with 2-3 small meals per day of solid food with weight loss of about 0.5-1kg per week and does not experience adverse symptoms.



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