Vertical Banded Gastroplasty

Definition

Vertical banded gastroplasty, or VBG, is an elective surgical procedure in which the stomach is partitioned with staples and fitted with a plastic band to limit the amount of food that the stomach can hold at one time. Gastroplasty is a term that comes from two Greek words, gaster or "stomach," and plassein, "to form or shape." "Stomach stapling," also known as VBG, is part of a relatively new surgical subspecialty called bariatric surgery. The word "bariatric" is also derived from two Greek words, barys, which means "heavy," and iatros, which means "healer." A restrictive bariatric procedure, VBG controls the amount of food that the stomach can hold—in contrast to malabsorptive surgeries, in which the food is rerouted within the digestive tract to prevent complete absorption of the nutrients in the food.