Search the Community

scale Weight-loss Surgery The first large-scale review of weight-loss surgeries performed on older adults suggests bariatric procedures should generally be limited to people younger than age 65, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found. The study showed that older patients experienced less weight loss and far more complications than younger patients, indicating that the risks often outweigh the benefits of these types of surgeries in older patients. The study, which appears in the Archives of Surgery, reviewed more than 25,000 bariatric procedures from a national database. "Adverse outcomes increased with age, particularly after age 60," said Dr. Edward Livingston, chairman of GI/endocrine surgery at UT Southwestern and the study's lead author. "Beyond 65 years of age, the adverse event rate exceeded 20 percent and mortality was 3.23 percent." In addition to age, the study found that men and those with electrolyte disorders and congestive heart failure were at greater risk of death from bariatric surgery or related complications, said Dr. Livingston. Other conditions that increased risk for adverse events and required longer hospital stays included chronic pulmonary disease, diabetes and depression. Common complications included gastrointestinal, respiratory and cardiac problems. Gastrointestinal problems were most common, occurring in about 30 percent of older patients who had complications. Respiratory-tract problems occurred in about 20 percent of patients with post-operative problems. Cardiac complications affected about 15 percent of elderly patients. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that nearly one-third of adult Americans - more than 60 million people - are obese. Nearly 5 percent of adults are classified as extremely obese. The American Society for Bariatric Surgery Foundation estimates that more than 1,000 people die each day from obesity-related complications. Obese adults are at increased risk of diabetes, hypertension, stroke and even some cancers. Obesity ranges from mild (20 to 50 pounds overweight) to morbidly obese (more than 100 pounds overweight). Bariatric surgeries are usually reserved for those more than 100 pounds overweight. This latest study reviewed 25,428 bariatric procedures involving Medicare beneficiaries using the National Inpatient Survey database, which contains discharge information for 20 percent of all hospitalizations in the United States, a sufficiently large enough population to overcome limitations of previous studies. UT Southwestern is one of the few institutions in the nation that offers all types of bariatric procedures and is a regional referral center and leader in bariatric surgery, having performed the area's first lap band procedures and robotically assisted lap band procedures. UT Southwestern bariatrics programs have garnered national recognition as well, being named bariatric surgery Centers of Excellence by the American Society for Bariatric Surgery and United Resource Networks' Clinical Sciences Institute. ### About UT Southwestern Medical Center UT Southwestern Medical Center, one of the premier medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. Its more than 1,400 full-time faculty members - including four active Nobel Prize winners, more than any other medical school in the world - are responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and are committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide medical care in 40 specialties to nearly 89,000 hospitalized patients and oversee 2.1 million outpatient visits a year. Dr. Edward Livingston - http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/findfac/professional/0,2356,58399,00.html Contact: Russell Rian UT Southwestern Medical Center

MY surgery is this Wednesday and I feel like everything I'm doing will be the last time I'm doping it. Even writing MSG's to folks I'm extra nice cause I don't the last thing I say to be mediocre...lol, kinda silly isn't it. But I've been dreaming about death and found a dead mouse in the back lane and dead bird in my front yard...I'm scared I'll be lost in the OR, loose my life to blood loss or complications...sigh'

I totally know its a safe surgery with less complications then most others. I know all of the logical things that you great ladies have told me are true but that doesnt stop the irrational part of your brain from being scared. I've had 13 surgeries to date, and 1 was abdominal which was gallbladder. Of all my surgeries that was the hardest...I ended right back up in the er a few hours later, sick as a dog. Maybe that plays into my fear, knowing I have to deal with that again. The gas pain is absolutely terrible for me. I am sure many of us say that! To answer your question Pandora... It isn't the band procedure or plication that is freaking me out. I chose the banded plication because while bypass and sleeve are just too drastic for me, I am totally fine having a few stitches thrown in. In fact, I like that in many cases bandster hell can be eliminated because of the instant restriction it creates. Also it lessens the chance of a slip, and I like that. I saw a post earlier about intense vomiting and the band....that does worry me, as I do get bugs/flu and get pretty intense vomiting at times. Do you just get an unfilled or....? How hard can you really vomit before causing a slip?

Hi Ya'll My gastric sleeve surgery was performed because I had a tumor on my stomach and the procedure to remove it is gastric bypass surgery. During this surgery they perforated my bowel and it caused poison to go all through my body and almost death. Now I am told that this error/complication is more common then I know. Well I would like some statistics now to see if it is worth fighting the bill I am going to get from that second surgery. Please share if you ran across this same complication as I really need to chat with someone regarding the after pain. Have a blessed day!!

Stalls happens to nearly everyone. Personally I suspect that the people who do not hit stalls also find valuable antiques at garage sales, win free cruises and never get traffic tickets. I stalled from week 3-7 (but did not know because I did not weigh myself except at the doctor), then I suspect I stalled multiple times after that too. I still made it to where I needed to be. Bariatric teams usually stress the importance of hydration over food at this point post surgery. There is usually more concern from the complications of dehydration vs low calorie intake - we are trying to use the excess stored fat after all. Ask your team if it is okay to only eat the amount you are comfortable with and at the frequency that works for you. The extended eating time frame is usually for when we start solids. Most of the time If we hold up our end of the bargain (mentally), our bodies will do the same. It will all come together eventually and life after WLS will not always feel like a chore. Good Luck!

I was definitely not ready for camping 2-3 weeks out. I had no complications but I just didn't rebound as quickly as some folks. I was also unable to eat at all for the first two weeks and drinking was a struggle. That got better in week 3 for me. How fast you recover is very much a YMMV kind of thing. Can you defer the decision until you see how you feel?

I'm not interested in getting the referral fee, I'm concerned about the fact that money is being offered for a recommendation. I would like to believe that when somebody is recommending or referring me to your group is because they really did have a good experience and not because they will get money out of it. For example, when my friends joined, they received private messages from several users saying wonders about their doctors, is it because they were looking for the fee? How do you know if those people were actual patients? My answer to them was that they should only believe a recommendation if it comes from someone they know, after all, as a patient it is our responsibility to research thoroughly before making a decision. I had a great experience with my doctor and his coordinating team but even so, I am hesitant to refer anyone I know because they might have a different experience or a complication and I would feel partly responsible for it. I write about my experience and if it helps others, I'm happy but I would not ever expect a payment for referring someone to a doctor.

I found out after my mother passed that at some point she has a gastrectomy done as well. There is absolutely no one left alive that had any idea the procedure was ever performed. No one knows why, or when, so she would have had to have had it done during her short stint in the army before she got injured. That means that she had it for 25 years before she passed away. She never had any complications and was always thin. When I think back on it I never even remember her ever saying she was hungry, even though she cooked all the time. Her passing had nothing to do with her surgery. As a matter of fact, me finding out about her gastrectomy was the long term info I needed to make my decision.

This varies from doctor to doctor.. But the standard answer is "follow what your doc says". Mine was solid foods in week 7 post-op, meat in week 8 (including red meat). They suggested softer meats at first but to be honest I had more problems with things like hamburger and got the solid meats down easier. Certain semi-soft foods seem to get stuck at the start of the sleeve, while the more solid items pushed through. The NP said this was not uncommon, and a slight stricture at the opening to the stomach would cause this but that it would loosen up (which it did). 4 months for red meat seems like an awfully long time. Compared to many here the 8 weeks my doc states is even a bit on the long side. I know it's not something you want to jump right into as your stomach needs time to heal. But that's the first I have heard of anything that long... Were there any complications before during or after the surgery or was this a band to sleeve revision? Something that might suggest additional healing time is needed? Or is this his standard guidelines?

Hi Dntsnt, Have you tried looking on the website ObesityHelp.com It can also give you some information. I use sleeve talk and OH daily to get information on pre op and post op stuff now that I'm a few days from surgery. Anyhow, there is a tread on Dr. A. I'm putting it on this one so you can see it. It's just the first one that popped up when I googled his name. My best advise is to do your research and trust your heart about what you think is best for you. There are too many folks saying the same kind of stuff about Dr. A to ignore. It goes back to that saying about if it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck....etc. Its not to say that he hasn't had good comments too, because he has and that should not be discarded either. Just make the right choice for you Dntsnt. Good luck to you. www.obesityhelp.com/.../Complications-from-my-sisters-surgery-Dr- Almanza-Reyes/ This is from someone named Prissy4115. Post Date: 6/1/10 8:55 pm Well, my sister had her surgery 3 weeks ago today. She is currently in the US in ICU and has been for 16 days now. She is in really bad shape after she was left with a leak in her stomach which formed a hole into her stomach and everything was leaking into her that she was taking via her mouth. After having her surgery on a Tuesday, then having to sit on a non air conditioned van so others could shop and then saying she was okay to fly home on Friday (4 days after her surgery). While in San Diego on Thursday she was very ill, my mom called the coordinator and was told "oh its normal, just gas pains"..How many of you have heard that? Well, she flew back home and felt so bad. Then Sunday morning at 4am where her drain was she started spitting out fluids like a Water fountain from her incision, it was watery, then bloody looking. She soaked her night gown and 2 towels and was in sever pain. My brother in law called an ambulance for her and she was rushed to the ER. Her heart rate was low, blood pressure low & had a fever. After several test they finally realized what was wrong (hole in her stomach) and rushed her to emergency surgery to repair this. She also had a severe case of pneumonia in her lungs, was severly dehydrated, and her kidneys had temporarily shut down. Now here we are 16 days later, she has had 4 surgerys to "wash" out the infection and she is still running fever, still on a ventilator to breath and they can not sew her up b/c of future surgeries to clean the infection. She is being fed through a tube directly in her veins. She is so swollen and has so much Fluid on her that she has gained 70+ lbs. She has to constantly lay on a cooling blanket to keep her temp from raising to dangerous levels. They have her in a medical induced coma and we have not been able to talk to her since the day in the ER. She will be in ICU for at least another month and the hospital and additonal 2-3 months. The doctor said it will be a year before she is completley better. This is a very scary experience for us and our family. My mother had the same surgery last year in July but this was when they was not doing the whole "rack em and stack em", "get you in and get you out". Thank God, her surgery so far has had no complications. When you are pushing 6 + surgeries a day and your "housekeeper" is removing the drain tubes something is not right. I hope you all know that I am telling you the honest to God truth about our story. My sister is laying in ICU with a huge opening in her stomach right now b/c the doctors are trying to fix what went so wrong. We have pictures if anyone needs to see the pictures of her. Please pray for her, we have our family and church praying for her recovery each and every day. I pray that nobody else ever has to go through what she is going through. She chose to do this in Mexico becuase yes it was cheaper BUT in the long run she is spending so MUCH more money now to take care of this. Supposedly the coordinator was fired because she was not telling the doctor about everything going on with my sister. I really think the coordinator got a conscience and realized their is some issues going on that she did not want to be a part of. Please keep Beverly in your prayers. Thank you! from her lil sister & best friend

Not only will you most likely get sick but you could hurt your new stomach and cause complications. You're too early yet. highest weight: 380<br />date of surgery weight: 376<br />current weight 353

April 4 is an excellent day for your surgery! That is my 6 month post op anniversary. I have had no complications and I love my sleeve! CONRATS to you!

This is the time to get therapy regarding your relationship with food. We have all dieted successfully but not kept the weight off on our own, the sleeve makes that more possible but it takes as much mental work as physical work. Right now take notice of how often emotional issues make you turn to food - whether it is anger, fear, disappointment, a tough decision, stress - whatever - you will need to find another way to cope with those issues. There are risks in any surgery, but skilled surgical teams have mastered this technique and complications are very rare and recovery generally tolerable, easier than gall bladder surgery for most. Ask anesthesiologist for a scopolamine patch for nausea - works great, and walk soon and often to get the gas/discomfort out and sip liquids as often as you can. Listen to your surgeon's directions. Good luck.

My bmi was higher, but under 40. I am 5' 4 and a half" and was at 229 going into surgery. But I am one of those people that wishes I had done something sooner. I spent 9 years dieting myself from 160 to 190, back and forth, and the next 5 to go to 230. I wish I would have had the chance to make a permanent change downward before it affected my health. I am not even 40 yrs old (yet, but soon) and have Metabolic syndrome...high cholesterol, borderline high blood pressure, and insulin resistance. All are related to weight and poor diet choices, with a smidgen of heriditary involved. Makes me feel bad and puts me at the highest risk for heart disease,,,,,,,,,,,didnt hit that category until I was over 200. So consider all aspects of your health before you do something as drastic as surgery. There are possible complications. That said, I wish had stopped the downward (upward) spiral pounds ago.

I preferred not to alter my intestines if I didn't have to, because THAT is what leads to 99% of RNY complications.

Yes, she's likely thinking of a vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG), an earlier incarnation of gastric banding. It may have been laparascopic (as in lap-) but what it wasn't was adjustable. The device that the FDA approved in 2001 was the first adjustable gastric band available in the U.S. It's not done much anymore since it had a high rate of complications and failures.

That all sounds great - I do think that is a pretty reasonable price. Dr. Domkowski that I am going with is $12,500 and Dr. Kim at Florida Hospital Celebration was around $16,750 for self pay. I, too, considered Mexico and really thought long and hard about Dr. Aceves as he has been doing WLS for so many years and is very respected in bariatric circles but in the end, I just didn't feel great about traveling to Mexico and then not being close to my surgeon if I would have complications later. Plus, I feel SUPER confident in my Dr. He is wonderful and his former patients have nothing but wonderful things to say about him, as well as the nurses from the hospital that he does his surgeries in. I believe I have to do a one-week liquid diet before my surgery but of course I will have all the ins and outs next week when I meet with him again! I am so very excited to get started. It can't get here fast enough for me. I am SO up for the challenge.......... I just can't believe where I have let myself get to....It truly affects every facet of my life, both physically and mentally. I let it interfere in everything. I have about 127 lbs. (from my highest weight) to lose to get to my goal weight of 160 - although, to be honest, I have no idea where I will actually be at that weight because it has been so many years since I saw that number. I think I will have to wait till I get closer and re-evaluate. I'm tall (5'10") so I have to keep myself from looking so much at what other people's goal weights are and know that I just can't go that low.....really I just want to be healthy and comfortable in my own skin. I'm lucky enough to not have health problems (no high blood pressure, no high cholesterol, no sleep apnea, etc...)

I had my Lap Band surgery Nov 28th. Jan 10th I had my first 2oz fill. Jan 14th I was rushed to the emergency room due to having seizures. Jan 16th I had the fill taken out. As of today I am taking medication to give me some relief between the times I have a seizure and am under going test. My blood work is fine, my urine test was fine and also the CAT Scan was fine. I just had a 11 hour EEG and a EchoCardioGram. The Dr that put in my fill does not feel like the fill had anything to do with what I am experiencing. Has anyone experienced anything like this with their fill? The Dr that did my surgery did not at the time do the fills. After my surgery his techs. did get trained to do them so they are new at this. At the time of my fill the tech could not locate the port and stuck me about 4 times. He had to use a longer needle in order to reach the port. If the test shows no seizure activity in my brain I am just wondering if there could have been any nerve damage in the fill process. It was very uncomfortable, not painful, but it felt very strange like you would think a balloon being twisted to make 2 pieces. Any information you can share will be appreciated. Thanks Maranda

Wow, sleever314, I'm sorry you had to go through that! I'm not sure why a stress test was ordered for me because I had the endoscopy done with no problems and my had my colonospy done earlier and I was un anesthesia both times with no complications, but the cardiologist ordered it so I don't have a choice. Good luck with your surgery, I will be praying and thinking of you, I can't wait to get my date.

Hi guys, I was just curious if anyone has had any complications from any of their pre-op tests? I had my sleep study, endoscopy, saw my pulmonary dr. some lab work done but now I have to have a stress test done and an echo done, because of my weight, I get out of breath easy and I'm worried about not doing good on the stress test, I guess my mind is playing tricks on me, did anyone have any issues with their stress test or echo, I just don't want anything to get in the way of my surgery after coming this far. Thanks everyone.

i was band Oct 08. my experience has been a learn as i go process; i did not attend an extensive educational class prior to surgery. Since Oct i've lost 25 pounds. i am proud of this accomplishment (started at 200 pounds) but as i read many of your stories, i think this is nothing and prehaps i should be farther along. The fact is, my journey has not been all peaches and cream. maybe this is the result of not having gone through an extensive education process, maybe not. this is what i want to know from you. i love my lap band, but it is not the quick fix i'd imagined it to be. i have to work at losing every pound and inch! i have 5 cc's. daily exercise and good nutrition are at the top of my daily to do list. some days i'm on it and other days i'm not! anyone relate? recently i realized i am most successful at weight loss and getting on with my daily life (i'm 57, female, type A working professional) if i consume a diet consisting primarily of vitiman and protein rich liquids for two meals a day and a balanced third meal. doing so seems so much less complicated. i would appreciate hearing from those of you that have been band for several months, have very busy schedules and consider your weight loss journey successful, but not w/o its challenges. how so? whats working for you?

We've all been there. It certainly does get depressing at points. For myself I was still on liquids at two weeks out and ended up back in the hospital for another 16 days after that. So I was on liquids for about two months. And for 14 of the 16 days back in the hospital I only had food and most liquids through my iv. It was also hard for me to move onto the other stages of puréed and then soft foods. I finally got back to real food at about 3 months out. As far as other people eating in front of me..I just couldn't handle it! If hey wanted fast food they couldn't have it around me. Obviously I was very selfish with that, but ultimately it saved some of my sanity. Feeling bigger after surgery is normally due to all the iv fluids they push in you at the hospital. I felt like I was gonna pop the first and second time I came home. Hang in there the journey gets much better. I'm 4 1/2 months out and would do it all over again even with the complications. HW 229, SW 214, CW 160 RNY 3/14/13

Here's an article from Yahoo News Child stomach surgeries more popular <!-- END HEADLINE --> <!-- BEGIN STORY BODY -->By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press Writer 25 minutes ago As the popularity of stomach surgery has skyrocketed among obese adults, a growing number of doctors are asking, "Why not children, too?" For decades, the number of kids trying weight-loss surgery has been tiny. The operations themselves were risky, with a death rate of about 1 in 50. Children rarely got that fat, and when they did, pediatricians hesitated to put the developing bodies under the knife. Only 350 U.S. kids had such an operation in 2004, according to federal statistics. But improvements in surgical technique and huge increases in the number of dangerously obese children have begun fueling a change of heart. A group of four hospitals, led by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, are starting a large-scale study this spring examining how children respond to various types of weight-loss surgery, including the gastric bypass, in which a pouch is stapled off from the rest of the stomach and connected to the small intestine. Three more hospitals have approval from the food and Drug Administration to test how teens fare with a procedure called laparoscopic gastric banding, where an elastic collar installed around the stomach limits how much someone can eat. The FDA has hesitated to approve the gastric band for children, but surgeons at New York University Medical Center reported in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery this month that the device holds promise. The 53 boys and girls, aged 13 to 17, who participated in NYU's study shed nearly half their excess weight over 18 months, while suffering relatively minor complications. Crystal Kasprowicz, of St. James, N.Y., said she lost 100 pounds from her 250-pound frame after having the band installed at age 17. "I'm a totally different person," she said. Before the procedure, Kasprowicz said she took medication for a rapid heartbeat and was showing signs of developing diabetes. Every effort she made to stop getting bigger failed. Dieting didn't work, she said. Her heart problems made it hard to exercise. Even walking up stairs was a challenge. Now, she's off the heart drugs. Her blood-sugar levels are in check. She also feels better about herself. "I'm very outgoing now," said Kasprowicz. "I hike a lot ... I go to the beach in the summer now. I'm not as self-conscious when I go shopping for clothing." Similar studies are under way at the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago and at the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, which recently opened a weight-loss surgery center for teens. Doctors there expect to conduct about 50 operations this year. Children are only considered candidates for surgery after they have spent six months trying to lose weight through conventional methods under hospital supervision. But so far, not a single one has slimmed down enough to take surgery off the table, said Dr. Jeffrey Zitsman, associate attending surgeon at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. "That battle can only be won in a few instances," he said. The studies have followed a huge surge in the popularity of obesity surgeries among adults. The American Society for Bariatric Surgery estimates that more than 177,000 Americans had weight-loss surgery last year, up from 47,000 in 2001. Not everyone is pleased that kids might be next. "I don't think altering the human digestive tract is a solution to the problem of excess weight," said Joanne Ikeda, a nutritionist emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. "It's one of these quick-fixes that isn't a fix at all." Doctors, she said, still know relatively little about the long-term effects of such operations on the very young. The federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality released a study in July that said four in 10 weight-loss surgery patients develop complications within six months. Among adults, mortality rates among gastric bypass patients remain at between 1 in 100 and 1 in 200 patients. Laparoscopic gastric banding has been shown to have a much smaller death rate — about 1 in 1000 patients — but complications do occur. Of the patients who participated in the NYU study, two needed a second operation to adjust a slipping band; two developed hernias; five got an infection; five suffered mild hair loss and four had Iron deficiencies related to their new diet. After the study was complete, one patient asked to have her band removed because of discomfort, said Evan Nadler, a pediatric surgeon and co-author of the study. Nadler said those complications were minor compared to the chronic diabetes and cardiovascular disease teens would face if they remained that heavy into adulthood. "These are people who have tried everything they could possibly try," he said, noting that their mean weight at the study's start was 297 pounds. "Once they reach this level of morbid obesity, the vast majority go on to be obese adults," he said. Thomas Wadden, an obesity expert at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, said surgery can be of immense benefit to some teens, especially those already experiencing health problems. But he also advised caution. Egged on by TV shows and commercials expounding the benefits of weight-loss surgery, adult patients have begun showing up at Penn's Center for Weight and Eating Disorders demanding an operation as an easy first step to thinness. "When we ask them, 'What have you done so far to lose weight?' The patients say, 'Nothing,'" Wadden said. "They're going right to a $25,000 operation for which they are ill-prepared." It would be tragic, he said, to see the same phenomenon repeated among children. "They have to be selected with caution to make sure that this aggressive step is absolutely necessary."

I was banded on August 1st. I had complications and had to have another surgery on August 8th. so far I have lost 22lbs. They only concern i have is how do you know if you are eating enough food. I can only eat a little at a time not the recommended 1/4 cup if i try to eat more I vomit. Any advice?

Good Morning. It's Saturday and my surgery went well, no complications. Last night was rough, I couldn't sleep to well, the medicine they gave me made me itch and, as in most hospitals, as soon as I did doze off, someone came in for one thing or another. But this morning I feel great. No pain, passing gas, and walking frequently. Doc just told me I can start sipping water. Yea!! So as I'm typing this, I'm sipping and watching Love Boat on american TV. It's a good thing I brought my computer and some books. LOL. Today I met with Vegas Angel and her hubby Bearded Italian. He's getting ready for surgery this morning. RoseyandMusic and I met Thursday, and had dinner together. I'll talk to her this morning and see how she's doing. Gotta go, I'll post more later.