CASE REPORT: Migration of eroded laparoscopic adjustable gastric band causing small bowel obstruction and perforation

Abeysekera, Ashvini Surgical intern
Lee, Jerry Surgical Registrar
Ghosh, Simon Bariatric Fellow
Hacking, Craig

¹Department of General Surgery, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Herston, Queensland, Australia,

Correspondence to Dr Jerry Lee, e-mail; [email protected]

/Accepted April 07, 2017

Contributors Dr George Hopkins is a Consultant Bariatric Surgeon at the Royal Brisbane Hospital. AA is the intern who has drafted the report. JL is the surgical registrar and main editor. SG is the bariatric surgical fellow for Dr George Hopkins and has provided supervision for the write up. CH is the radiology consultant who has reported on patient's radiological imaging during admission, edited the article and written the radiological/investigation part of the case report.

Competing interests None declared.

Patient consent Obtained.

Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

BMJ Case Reports 2017:p 219954, January 2017. | DOI: 10.1136/bcr-2017-219954

We present an unusual and rare complication caused by gastric band erosion into the stomach after band placement 15 years ago. The complication was only picked up after the band had subsequently migrated from the stomach at the site of erosion, to the distal ileum causing acute small bowel obstruction and focal perforation requiring emergency laparotomy.

Abdominal pain in patients with gastric band should always be treated as serious until proven otherwise.