Overweight individuals who are not considered obese according to previous Food and Drug Administration standards now qualify to be candidates for Lap Band Surgery as an effective weight loss technique thanks to the FDA’s recent lowering of weight requirements for Lap Band patients. In mid-February, the FDA relaxed its weight requirements for using Allergan’s Lap-Band stomach restriction device used in the popular weight loss surgery. The new ruling lowers the required body mass index, or BMI of the patient from 40 with no obesity-related health problems to 35, and to a BMI of 30 for those individuals with current health complications.

The FDA’s new ruling enables more than 26 million people struggling with weight issues in America to be able to consider having Lap Band Surgery, almost double the number of individuals that were previously eligible for this type of weight loss surgery. The advisory committee to the FDA in making its endorsement to widen the availability of the Lap-Band noted that the many benefits of the device were greater than the risks for patients who are on the fringe of obesity levels.

Under the old regulations, an obese man with a health condition such as diabetes, standing 5 feet 6 inches tall would have had to weigh at least 216 pounds in order to qualify for Lap-Band Surgery. Under the new FDA regulations, that same surgical candidate with the same medical condition could weigh as much as 30 pounds less, or 186 pounds, and still qualify to use Lap Band Surgery as his chosen weight loss method.

Allergan helped to win the new regulations by submitting a study which showed that Lap-Band Surgery patients lost an average of 18% of their body weight within a year of the surgery. Allergan has agreed to continue to follow these same patients in clinical studies for the next 5 years.

In recent years as diet drugs have gone out of favor and some have been pulled off the market for being dangerous, the Lap-Band, an inflatable silicone ring positioned on the stomach to help reduce food intake and make the patient feel fuller after consuming less calories, has increased in popularity for both its safety and effectiveness.