MONDAY, March 21 (HealthDay News) -- While the majority of morbidly obese patients who undergo gastric banding say they are generally satisfied years later, almost 40 percent are saddled with major complications, while about half have to have their bands removed, a small, new Belgian study reveals.

The finding comes on the heels of a recent study out of the University of California, San Francisco that suggested gastric bypass surgery is superior to alternative surgical methods (such as gastric banding) for promoting weight loss and/or eliminating type 2 diabetes.

The current observations stem from a research effort led by Dr. Jacques Himpens, of the European School of Laparoscopic Surgery at the Saint Pierre University Hospital in Brussels, whose team assessed the status of 82 patients that had undergone the procedure known as "laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding" (LABG) more than a decade prior to the study launch.

Himpens and his colleagues outline their findings in the March 21 online issue and the July print issue of the Archives of Surgery.