Pyloric Stenosis/Pyloromyotomy

[Ouiser 19]

Hello

I'm new to this and have some concerned. My initial appointment with the doctor - he sort of hesitated a bit when he read I had pyloric stenosis and then continued on with the rest of his lecture. I never questioned him on that hesitation but I am curious if anyone else has had a Gastric Sleeve and had pyloric stenosis/Pyloromyotomy as an infant?

[Berry78 4,261]

I bet he was just calculating in his head about whether that should be a problem. He must have decided it was ok, or he would have said something. He may have been making a mental note to check more into it too. Feel free to ask him about it next time

On a personal note, my brother also had the condition as an infant, but it never gave him issues later in life. (He wasn't a wls patient though).

Does make a good story. Mom took him to the doctor's several times before they believed her..puke everywhere!

[Deactivatedfatgal 377]

Initial consultation, or post op? I am unsure of what that is

[Ouiser 19]

1 minute ago, Deactivatedfatgal said:

Initial consultation, or post op? I am unsure of what that is

Initial consultation. I had reached out to this Bariatric Center, made an appointment and met with various staff (nurses, nutrionist, and of course the surgeon) to go over what is expected. My next consultation with the doctor is 6/27 - by that time all the appropriate blood work, ekg, and xrays will have been completed.

[Ouiser 19]

4 minutes ago, Berry78 said:

I bet he was just calculating in his head about whether that should be a problem. He must have decided it was ok, or he would have said something. He may have been making a mental note to check more into it too. Feel free to ask him about it next time

On a personal note, my brother also had the condition as an infant, but it never gave him issues later in life. (He wasn't a wls patient though).

Does make a good story. Mom took him to the doctor's several times before they believed her..puke everywhere!

I suspect as much as well. Same stories. Projectile vomiting no matter what was given. She took me to our family doctor - and he said "I Don't want to scare you, but this is not uncommon and you need to take him to surgery immediately". I was 10 days old. Left a pretty awesome scar on my stomach; my older brother told his friends it was a war wound - HA!

[Deactivatedfatgal 377]

Ohhh, we'll definitely look into the dr's findings and take careful consideration in regards to if it can affect you post op or what not.

[MBird 298]

Hello
I'm new to this and have some concerned. My initial appointment with the doctor - he sort of hesitated a bit when he read I had pyloric stenosis and then continued on with the rest of his lecture. I never questioned him on that hesitation but I am curious if anyone else has had a Gastric Sleeve and had pyloric stenosis/Pyloromyotomy as an infant?

Hi Ouiser,

Yes, I've had pyloric stenosis and was sleeved today.

It's not an issue for surgeons who do the sleeve gastrectomy as the stenosis is not on the side of the stomach to be removed. If he's confident he should be able to do it without any issues whatsoever. If you had your surgery as an infant, the scar tissue is so thin, it's basically non existent, like regular skin, so they have no issue cutting through it. However I'm uncertain what difficulties may arise with scar tissue on someone who has had the surgery later on in life.

You might consider asking him if he has issues with it, and if so what and why. He may have been stunned and paused a moment, because those of us who have pyloric stenosis are very rare.

[frogman 3]

Some of the scars from infant pyloric stenosis surgery have damaged or cut nerve lines and blood vessels and this can impair healing. Your doctor would have had to decide whether your scar's position and his intended surgery make up an issue or not. Btw, I've never read that the scars from infant surgery are less damaging than those from adult surgery. In fact, those of us with an scar from infancy know that it's larger than would have been necessary in adulthood and we've seen it grow with us. Best wishes

[MBird 298]

Some of the scars from infant pyloric stenosis surgery have damaged or cut nerve lines and blood vessels and this can impair healing. Your doctor would have had to decide whether your scar's position and his intended surgery make up an issue or not. Btw, I've never read that the scars from infant surgery are less damaging than those from adult surgery. In fact, those of us with an scar from infancy know that it's larger than would have been necessary in adulthood and we've seen it grow with us. Best wishes

The comment about scar tissue from infancy came from my doctor who said some of what you said, that it depends on size and positioning but that yes, the scar tissue was formed so long ago it's thickness is akin to normal skin now.

My scar is like you said, huge, maybe almost five to six inches across, if not more.

I'm not sure larger means tougher skin, when I showed him mine, it wasn't an issue and mine is pretty wide across. I met two others who had pyloric stenosis and it wasn't an issue for them to have WLS - one had the sleeve, the other Roux En Y.

Wishing you the best! I hope you can have it done.

[shannontayylor 1]

Hi Ouiser, I have been recently looking into having bariatric surgery and I also in fact had pyloric stenosis surgery when I was an infant. I was wondering if you had any issues with your surgery due to having that procedure done when you were an infant. Thank you in advance!

[PatrickZJD 2]

On 5/23/2017 at 10:57 PM, MBird said:

Hi Ouiser,

Yes, I've had pyloric stenosis and was sleeved today.

It's not an issue for surgeons who do the sleeve gastrectomy as the stenosis is not on the side of the stomach to be removed. If he's confident he should be able to do it without any issues whatsoever. If you had your surgery as an infant, the scar tissue is so thin, it's basically non existent, like regular skin, so they have no issue cutting through it. However I'm uncertain what difficulties may arise with scar tissue on someone who has had the surgery later on in life.

You might consider asking him if he has issues with it, and if so what and why. He may have been stunned and paused a moment, because those of us who have pyloric stenosis are very rare.

This is precisely the issue that I am facing right now: I had surgery for adult-onset idiopathic hypertrophic pyloric stenosis about twenty-five years ago, and over the past eight months or so, I have actually re-stenosed my pylorus. As I was also considering having WLS, the surgeon I have initially consulted is unsure just how safe a Roux-en-Y or sleeve is, due to the potential complications I have with scar tissue. Even though I know that adult pyloric stenosis is rare enough without talking about recurrence, I would love, just on the off-chance, to hear from anyone who has either had a WLS procedure or has faced the issue of recurrent pyloric stenosis. Thanks so much should anyone reply...this has been a hellish time for me, in terms of pain and nausea, and wanting to deal with my being overweight makes it just that much harder.

[frogman 3]

I have no investment in Facebook, and don't like some of the things I hear, but have been a member of several of its Pyloric Stenosis groups for 10 or so years - and learnt so much! The biggest and best groups are "closed" - you have to join them before you can "see" or access and post to their discussions. Well over 1,000 adult and infant PS survivors are members and form an impressive range and depth of experience. WLS for people with scarring from the infant and adult PS surgery has been discussed several times.

[PatrickZJD 2]

Hi, frogman, thanks so, so much for the excellent suggestion! My wife is the FB member in the family, and it's funny how it never even occurred to me to look either for social media groups or even simply other pyloric stenosis fora. I am definitely going to give these options a look, because I am really at the end of my rope, both in terms of the PS alone and the WLS questions on top of that, too. Again, much thanks for both the promptness and the compassion of your response!

[frogman 3]

Patient (a UK forum available worldwide), and MedHelp and Topix (both US based but worldwide) each also have good "threads" of PS- and WLS-related discussion pages and fora, but FB's "Pyloric Stenosis Support Group" is by far the largest and most informative - and it's "closed". Best wishes!

[Frustr8 7,886]

Does this complicate things for a Sleeve Candidate? Just Wondering.