How common is band problems?????????

[ladysplenda 1]

I have seen alot of people having band problems.How common is it.Band ersion, slipping.Is this that common.What do they do for these things.REMOVE the band.

[the best me 6]

Erosion requires band removal. Slips can be repaired. Most folks happily banded are off the boards living normal happy lives and LBT is full of 1) researchers 2)newbies 3) bandsters with problems and/or 4) LBT addicts like me.

[Firecallie 2]

I'm a newbie soon to become an addict

[lovecats85 2]

I don't know the exact stats on erosion but slippage is often at the fault of the bandster - drinking tons of carbonation, eating way too much even though they know they can't, throwing up a ton, etc. I was at the doc today and some lady's band had slipped b/c she got filled too tight and threw up for 3 months but didn't tell the doc b/c she was happy to be loosing more weight. I understand wanting to lose quickly but better to take time time and do it right. So, point is, I think the slippage stats don't consider why the band slipped and often it's a bandsters fault for not following the rules. Now, it can slip for no reason at all, and that's just a chance you have to take.

[Infaith 1]

My slipped band was due primarily to a nasty stomach virus I caught that had me throwing up violently. I knew it wasn't "just my band being too tight" as my aunt had the same virus, same throwing up, same dehydration and she isn't banded!

I am being rebanded in January and that's one thing I'm going to check with my doctor on, is what do we do when we get sick with something like this? I mean the virus hit me fast and hard. I was fine one day and that night I couldn't stop the vomiting and feeling like absolute crud. After I vomited the first time, I thought..."oh, I ate too fast or something...stick to liquids for at least a day and maybe longer", but I couldn't even keep liquids down and I had been fine earlier with eating and drinking and had even had quite a large unfill about 3 weeks before.

You just don't know. But it's not scaring me out of getting rebanded, no siree!

[g curtis 0]

Is the band less likely to slip after a certain amount of time or if we had a virous say 4years after cwe were banded could it still slip??

[mom2babyrose97 0]

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I don't know how common big problems are, but I've been struggling with an infection around my port area for over 3 months now (since day 7 post op). I've had a 2nd surgery to remove my port, and have had a wound vac and home nurses 3 times/week for over 5 weeks. Not the best way to start life as a bandster, but I'm sure hoping it gets better.

I went into my Dr. last Thursday and got disappointing news. The nurses hadn't been sticking the foam in deep enough and I had new tissue grow OVER a large hollow area. It filled up with pus and became a problem. He had to re-cut through the tissue, and now I have a hole that's about 4 1/2 inches deep. He said it's possible that my tubing could have gotten contaminated from my infected port, and at some point if this doesn't heal, I might have to get my entire band removed. I certainly hope not. If I DO have to have it removed, I will not have another one placed. This last 3 months has just been too hard enotionally on my family and I. I have 3 children who don't understand why I would do this to myself, and 2 younger children who are afraid to hug me b/c they think they'll hurt me. I just want to be healthy...don't we all. Anyway, I've spoken to the director of the Home Health Company who takes care of the wound vac, and expressed my disappointment in basically losing 5 weeks of healing time b/c their nurses weren't doing my changes correctly. I don't think I'll have problems again. I really believe that when it all comes down to it, we are our own best advocates. Well, that's my story/update...and I'm stickin to it!! Thanks for reading if you still are. Erin

[GeezerSue 7]

I don't know the exact stats on erosion but slippage is often at the fault of the bandster - drinking tons of carbonation, eating way too much even though they know they can't, throwing up a ton, etc. I was at the doc today and some lady's band had slipped b/c she got filled too tight and threw up for 3 months but didn't tell the doc b/c she was happy to be loosing more weight. I understand wanting to lose quickly but better to take time time and do it right. So, point is, I think the slippage stats don't consider why the band slipped and often it's a bandsters fault for not following the rules. Now, it can slip for no reason at all, and that's just a chance you have to take.

You know, I don't want this to sound like an attack on YOU...but it IS challenging to maintain that stance.

So let me mention this...when people want to convince themselves that THEY would NEVER find themselves in a position they don't want to be in, they often blame a victim who DOES find him or herself in an unwanted position. Someone else is making mistakes that they would NEVER make. And since THEY would never be THAT stupid, THEY don't ever have to worry about that bad thing happening to them.

So...the house was burglarized because the residents left the window unlocked; and the parents of the 13-year-old weren't watching closely enough so THAT'S why he was having sex with his friend's mom; and the new moms who suffer from post-partum psychosis (not depression) and hurt their kids are just BAD moms (not SICK and not receiving medical care); and so on.

Lovecats, the people who have been having problems have been banded ten or fifteen times as long as you have. You surely have the best of intentions, and I wish you all the luck in the world. But until you have a little more experience with the band, blaming other people--without scientific evidence that they did something wrong--is a real disservice.

It's kinda like someone returning from their honeymoon and telling all the people who have been married ten or tweny years what they are all doing wrong.

And the critical issue in slippage cases was the early placement technique, which was changed--about three years ago--to the pars flaccida technique. It had ZIP, ZERO, NADA to do with soft drinks. And the vomiting that causes some of the current slippage problems can be due to too much saline in the band, but can just as easily be caused by vomiting due to other reasons...morning sickness, stomach flu, esophageal damage.

[GeezerSue 7]

...the last report I read about a year ago....placed ALL band problems in the 'less than 12%" category IIRC....including all the common and not so common problems....most of which were correctible...and certainly far below the general population of comorbidities that I myself was concerned about...

so....here....LITTLE problems make up most news....I've only heard of a few requiring removal or revision surgery....a few have unbanded for various reasons...but I haven't tracked these for a true count....

there's medical sites and google,etc to help look at these questions....if I had the time I would check it out myself....

~~~~~~

Jack,

I think that 12% is right--for some of the best and most experienced surgeons inthe country. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16235124&query_hl=1

But, someone is always doing his or her first band surgery, and--in one fairly local case I've been following--when he did his first three proctored cases, at least one of those patients ended up readmitted, which means HIS current complication rate is at least 33%. In this case, the patient KNEW she was going to be the first band patient and chose to take that risk. (Somebody had to be first for every doctor.) But as insurance covers more procedures, more doctors are giving the band a try, and there are more and more who have done three or five or twenty. They probably account for higher complication rates.

That study above is from a VERY talentd group of physicians, one of whom--George Fielding--had been doing LapBand placements in Australia for many years before he moved to New York. His vast experience has to have factored into the low complication rate in that practice.