Fobi ring

[madferitchick 163]

Does anyone have any experience of these with a sleeve? I've been offered one today (surgery in two weeks) and wasn't expecting it so undecided! Gut feeling is I don't want it, but id be interested in any experiences people can share?

[momfromjersey22 403]

I don't even know what it is, sorry.

[AvaFern 3,516]

I had never heard of the Fobi ring so I had to do a little research. My understanding is that it is designed to prevent the stomach from stretching, which is a concern for some people several years after surgery. I thought it was generally used on bypass patients and not sleeve patients, so its application for VSG is very new. I am 1 year and 7 months out and my stomach constriction still works very well. I liked the sleeve because while it is forever, there isn't anything extra inside of me that can fail. While the Fobi seems unlikely to create complications, it is still in the final stages of FDA approval so there is very limited research on sleeve patients to support whether it is a good or a bad idea. Also, just looking at the way it works it seems as if it would be far more effective in a bypass patient than a sleeve patient because the area of constriction on a sleeve with the Fobi is so small in comparison to how it is applied for bypass. What if you stretch the rest of your stomach? That one little spot protected by the Fobi doesn't seem as if it is really fixing the potential problem in its entirety.

I'm not really an early adopter of technology or new medical treatments, but my opinion is my traditional sleeve works exactly like it is supposed to and if I could have known that two weeks before I had the surgery, I would not have added a Fobi purely because as it turns out, I have not needed it.

Do some research, talk to your doctor, call a few other doctors....at one point VSG was an experimental procedure, so was lapband, and even bypass...all of them worked out just fine. I just wouldn't want to have been one of the original patients to help them get the kinks out of the process, lol.

[madferitchick 163]

Thanks avafern :-)

I have decided to go ahead WITHOUT the fobi ring. I figure the surgery on its own has been successful for so many, and if I use it correctly it will be for me too :-)