Prior Abdominal Surgery

[Emma73538 1]

I have had my pre-op consultation with the surgeon. He advised that I may not be a good candidate for the VSG as I have had a prior abdominal surgery (40 years ago). When I was 8 years old, I had a high fever and they thought it was my appendix so they went in, took a look and it wasn't my appendix, so they proceeded to open me up right in the middle of my abdomen area from right above my belly button about 6 inches long. The surgeon says there is no other way to know until he goes in the day of surgery if he will be able to do it laproscopically. I got the impression he doesn't do open surgeries, so I'll go through this entire process without knowing until after I wake up in recovery whether he could do it. Bummer.

Has anyone here had any similar surgery prior to VSG and what was the outcome?

Thanks.

[Sophie74656 1,572]

oh man, first of all, I feel bad that you had to go through that as a child. I hope you are able to still have your surgery now

I did have my gallbladder out about 12 years ago and that had no impact on my surgery

[MrsSantiago 27]

Ive heard of a woman that had abdominal surgery and she developed abdominal adhesions they were unable to operate her laparoscopic so they had to open her up. I suggest u consult with different surgeons before choosing the right path. Good luck.

[Emma73538 1]

oh man, first of all, I feel bad that you had to go through that as a child. I hope you are able to still have your surgery now

I did have my gallbladder out about 12 years ago and that had no impact on my surgery

Hi Sophie,

Thanks for your reply. I had my gallbladder out in 2007 but it was laparoscopic. He wasn't concerned about that, just the scar from 40 years ago. I hope I can have it!

Ive heard of a woman that had abdominal surgery and she developed abdominal adhesions they were unable to operate her laparoscopic so they had to open her up. I suggest u consult with different surgeons before choosing the right path. Good luck.

Thanks for your reply MrsSantiago. Getting a second opinion is always an option and good advice.

[VSGAnn2014 12,992]

Sounds to me like you need to find a general surgeon who can meet a much wider range of bariatric surgery needs than your current surgeon can handle.

[Miss Mac 6,262]

My sleeve was my 12th surgery. In my abdominal area, I had my appendix out in 1966, my gallbladder out in 1973 (that incision is about 15 inches long), and c-sections in 1976 and 1978, and an abdominal exploratory (bikini incision) for a female problem in 1969. My surgeon teaches bariatric and robotic surgery at Loyola University Medical Center, and did not even mention adhesions. My sleeve was uncomplicated with four laparoscopic incisions and a textbook recovery. I hope everything goes well for you. Hugs from Chicago.

[liannatx 897]

I cant imagine why a prior abdominal surgery would make this a non-viable surgery for you. Many sleevers have had prior open/lap surgeries! My surgeon said that for him this was the equivalent of a dentist doing an extraction... what he was trained for, and not overly complicated (for him). He removed my lapband, and he had to enter and deal with a crapload of scar tissue and adhesions. Adhesions from the stomach to the port, all around where the port was adhered to the ab wall, my port had adhesions to my liver, etc...

These surgeons are good at what they do, he was probably just cautioning you on the "chance" that some unknown might interfere. Hang in there and don't let the stress worries get to you! You will have this surgery, and do fine!

[Emma73538 1]

I feel much better after reading all your posts. Thank you!

[BLERDgirl 6,417]

Definitely seek out other surgeons. I had a radical hysterectomy 12 years ago. It was also done laparoscopically but I ended up having an abscess that was pretty deep. I had to have it lance, wicked and received daily wound care until it closed up. The only difference it made was that I had more incisions than the typical sleeve patient.

[HopeandAgony 566]

I've had 4 abdominal surgeries. 2 horizontal csections, 1 vertical csection, and a laproscopic gall bladder removal. My surgery went off with out a hitch. I did have some extensive pain for the first 2 weeks due to all the scar tissue my doctor had to go thru. I will be 4 weeks post op on Monday and most pain is gone. Hope everything goes well for you.

[RickM 1,750]

The default is to do the procedure open if they can't do it lap, and we usually sign something to the effect that we understand that and approve of it. If you have any doubts (and it would be worth checking with the surgeon to make sure that you understand what he said, or meant) a second opinion would certainly be in order. Even amongst surgeons who are similarly "experienced" (like ten or twenty years of bariatrics,) they can still vary widely in what those "experiences" are - for some the potential complication that you present may be very concerning to him while to another with a somewhat different background it is no concern at all. We get a hint at this by looking at all the posts here on these forums about pre-op diets to "shrink the liver" - some docs are very strict about everyone doing two, three or more weeks of heavily liquid dieting to give them more space while working in there while others require little or nothing at all as they are comfortable working with those issues.

[Emma73538 1]

All good advice! Thanks to everyone who has posted. I really appreciate it. Sometimes when I'm speaking with doctors, I lose the ability to question. It frustrates me!

[Grace4liberty 6]

My surgeon said he's doing an endoscopy first, I had endometriosis stage 4, total hysterectomy via laparotomy, and 2 laparoscopies...

He said he's doing it just to take a peek inside first... I have NO idea what the result will be, as the endoscopy won't be til late Jan 2016. Did you have an exploratory endoscopy?

[baileyj908 37]

Possibly not want you want to hear...but I was in the hospital last week to have an ivc filter placed. The man in the bed next to me was scheduled to have the sleeve surgery. They actually were not able to do his surgery because there was too much scar tissue. They didn't know until they went in. They opened him up with one incision and put in a camera and stopped once they saw all the scar tissues.