they use natural gases to move other organs out of the way to make surgery easier, as for the pain for me it only lasted about 2 days and what it helped was a heating pad, walking (this will move gas either UPWARD OR DOWNWARD ) also with Gas X dissolvable strips. If you have any questions Go ahead and add me on Facebook and see my ongoing journey, I'm a lapbandster myself and i'm going throught this amaizing journey that I dont regret! follow me on www.facebook.com/kfrancolapband