my dr says he's self taught on doing the sleeve, should i be concerned?

[NY Lou 204]

so i asked my dr where he learned to do the sleeve. he said he taught himself after watching his partner do them and by also watching videos of other dr's who had done them. i guess he really learned while being in the operating room with his partner (who is the head of the bariatrics unit). my dr has done over 300 rny's, 100's of lapbands and 6 sleeves. he says he only had 1 leak ever, and that was in an rny patient. i also asked him if there were any deaths and he said 1, but that was a person who was getting a revision of a revision. he seems very honest and straightforward in all his answers. his 6 sleeve patients are all doing well. my dr works on one of the best bariatric teams in new york, which is the st lukes hospital bariatric unit, which is also a bariatrics center of excellence and a leading research center for bariatric surgery. their team is headed by dr julio teixeira, who has done thousands of wls and teaches other dr's. dr teixeira is also well known to do surgeries that many other dr's wont touch because theyre being done on patients at high risk and/or with complications. apparently hes that good. i dont know how many sleeves he has done. my dr is the no. 2 on his team and his name is dr james mcginty. my insurance has dr mcginty on my plan, but no other dr from that hospital is on my insurance as different dr's there take different insurance companies. im confident in my dr and he was the best and most experienced from all the dr's that were accepted by my insurance. what do you think about him saying he was self taught? im not really worried about him only having done 6 sleeves (this was discussed in a prior thread), im just concerned about what is considered the normal way for a dr to learn how to do the sleeve? any replies would be appreciated. ps - i did ask my dr a ton of questions about the sleeve and his procedure, including bougie size, how far from the pyloric valve does he start, leak testing and so on, and he answered them all to my satisfaction. and ive researched the sleeve so throughly that i knew what answers i should of gotten. he really seems to know what he is doing and i am very confident in using him, but i guess him saying he was self taught is making me think.

ps - i edited this ps in later. i just found out my dr operated on james gandolfini (tony soprano) back in 2008 (see link below). so if hes good enough for tony soprano, hes good enough for me

http://showhype.com/story/news_james_gandolfini_hospitalized /

Edited July 3, 2010 by Ny Lou

[BeenThereWasThat 2]

It sounds like you trust him and that is what is most important.

I am sure there are some people that wouldn't feel comfortable with his lack of experience. I am not sure they will speak up.

I am sorta in the same boat as you and I trust my surgeon and his experience with bariatric surgery. Wish you the best of luck!

[pnw218 14]

well, they all have to start somewhere! I don't know if a video and watching someone else is good or not, don't know if they start out practicing on donated bodies or real live ones : )

I am sure since he is newer, you would be watched carefully. To me, it seems that he might even be more cautious than a dr who has done hundreds of surgeries - the latter might be the ones who get a little lax and make a mistake here or there.

The 300 rny's impresses me. If that was less than 10, I might be concerned.

Good luck with your decision!

[WendyWE 0]

I think the most important thing is to trust your relationship with your surgeon. I was my surgeon's first VSG, and I had no doubt about his experience and his ability to do my sleeve.

[Mommato4 0]

New here...but not to medicine...I don't believe that the head of the center would allow him to do that type of surgery if he wasn't capable. It's possible that he had someone who knew what they were doing in there with him while he did his first few just to have another pair of eyes. Doctors won't risk malpractice (or a patients life) by doing trial and err on a living patients. So my feelings are that if he thought himself capable of performing the surgery and has done so successfully before, I would trust him.

[NY Lou 204]

thanks to all for your replies, and please keep them coming. its such a great thing to be able to hear from so many different people in this forum. not to mention its so informative as well.

on a side note, i just found out that james gandolfini (tony from the sopranos) used my dr for surgery (see link below) back in 2008. if hes good enough for tony soprano, hes good enough for me :thumbup:

http://showhype.com/story/news_james_gandolfini_hospitalized /

[educationrulz 18]

I think that the techniques your doctor used to learn this surgery are the way doctors around the world learn various procedures, especially watching other doctors do it. Since the head of the bariatric team trained your doctor, then it's not like he just went out and self taught himself. My only follow up questions to your doctor would be how many of his 6 VSGs were supervised by his mentor. I would be concerned if none of them were supervised.

Alot of people think that the number of surgeries performed is the top factor in chosing a surgeon. I don't agree with that if you can demonstrate a proven track record with similar surgeries, openness about techniques, and access to backup in the event of problems. If you're confident about those things and comfortable with your surgeon, you should be ok. Try asking if the doctor's office can put you in contact with those 6 VSG patients so you can talk to them directly...