Lapband slippage opinions...

[lifechange82 0]

I have seen a similar thread as the one I am posting, but mine is a bit different. I would like to know what everyone's surgeon's told them about what causes the band to slip. I know there are different theories, and would like to see what all is out there. Please understand I am just curious and thought other people might be as well, but I am not suggesting anyone go against their surgeon's orders!

As for me, my surgeon basically told me that lots of vomiting is pretty much the only thing that would make my band slip. And that's excluding any type of unrelated health problems or anything like that.

[Fanny Adams 7]

Ditto - my surgeon has really only mentioned vomiting as a cause of slippage and he is dead set against getting so tight that you PB even occasionally. He gave me 2 lots of anti-nausea pills, one to take to control general feelings of nausea and one to put under your tongue for an instant "DO NOT VOMIT!" reaction when needed. I've not had to use them yet, but keep them close at hand in case.

[lifechange82 0]

Oh yeah, I was also going to mention that my doctor gave me RX sea sick Patches to prevent throwing up at all...he told me to use it if I ever got the stomach flu, or food poisoning, or anything that could possibly make me throw up, so put one on behind my ear. And same goes with the fills as well. He said alot of people think that the tighter they are, the more weight they will lose, where in fact if you are too tight, you will be vomiting alot, which in turn causes band slippage...

[lifechange82 0]

..............

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

Also a band that was too small for the person to begin with and a fill that is too tight. Those can do it as well.

[SalOdyssey 441]

I watched and talked to a few different offices. Some doctors are now stitching the band itself into place. This virtually eliminated slippage. I believe the surgeon I am using also stitches it into place.

Sal

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

I watched and talked to a few different offices. Some doctors are now stitching the band itself into place. This virtually eliminated slippage. I believe the surgeon I am using also stitches it into place.

Sal

All doctors suture the band in place. If they don't I'd be running like hell the other direction. It's kinda like having open heart surgery and boasting that you put the heart back in before closing. I mean, some things are just a given. ;o)

[lifechange82 0]

yeah, i think its a regular part of the surgery just within the past few years to have the stomach stitched around the band because there were so many slips. i want to say i read that somewhere on here... either way, im glad i got my surgery in AFTER the time of anchorage!!!!!!!!!

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

yeah, i think its a regular part of the surgery just within the past few years to have the stomach stitched around the band because there were so many slips. i want to say i read that somewhere on here... either way, im glad i got my surgery in AFTER the time of anchorage!!!!!!!!!

I think they have always sewn it into place but the old technique was not good enough, people were slipping and eroding like crazy. So the technique was changed and now slips are doing to 3%+.

[Fanny Adams 7]

This has probably been posted before but it is relevant here and might be new to some. I might just go and add it to the Headhunter thread too, for the benefit of the newbies who are reading that.

LAP-BAND: Statistics subframe

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top noWrap width=530 height=60>Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding In 2000

Consecutive Obese Patients: 12-Year Results

</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top noWrap width=565 colSpan=2>

Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding (LAGB) with the LAP-BAND is the most commonly performed surgical procedure for the treatment of morbid obesity in Europe, Australia and South America. Since FDA approval in 2001 the LAP-BAND has ranked second among all bariatric procedures performed in the U.S. and, to date, approximately 300,000 LAP-BAND procedures have been performed worldwide.

Background:

The purpose of this study was to examine 1,791 consecutive laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) procedures with up to 12 years of follow up. LAGB is widely accepted but its efficacy in the long run is questioned since long term results with a high follow-up rate are not common.

Between September 1993 and December 2005, 1,791 consecutive patients (75.1% women, mean age 38.7 years, mean body weight 127.7+ –24 kg, mean body mass index (BMI) 46.2+ –7.7) underwent the LAP-BAND procedure. All operations were performed by ILOST surgeons, Dr. Franco Favretti and Dr. Gianni Segato, part of the multi-disciplinary team that developed the laparoscopic application of the LAP-BAND back in 1993.

Results:

The ILOST team of surgeons has performed the LAP-BAND procedure on more than 6.000 patients. Dr. Franco Favretti and Dr. Gianni Segato have just published the long term results (more than 12 years) of their own series of 2.000 patients. These results are unparalleled. There are no similar reports in the scientific literature.

Results measured over 12 years included mortality, complications, weight loss and resolution/improvement of co-morbidities. Life expectancy was evaluated in an additional study of LAP-BAND vs. medical therapy. Patients were followed at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months post-operatively and yearly thereafter. Band adjustments were performed with barium swallow under fluoroscopy.

Zero surgical mortality in the entire series.

A mortality rate of 0 in 1,791 consecutive LAP-BAND patients attests to the benign nature of the LAP-BAND surgery.

Re-operation rate of less than 5%.

Major complications requiring re-operation occurred in 106 (5.9%) patients. These included stomach slippage + pouch dilatation in 70 (3.9%) patients (band removed in 20 patients–1.1%, repositioned in 50 patients–2.8%), erosion in 16 (0.9%) patients (band removed), psychological intolerance in 14 (0.7%) patients (band removed), miscellaneous (HIV, infection, mircroperforation) in 5 (0.27%) patients (band removed) and gastric necrosis in 1 (0.05%) patient (gastrectomy performed). If we exclude the 31 major complications of the learning curve period (first 100 patients), the complication rate is reduced to 4.4%.

Unprecedented 12-year follow-up rate of 91% allowed ILOST surgeons to report reliable data.

Most common co-morbidities were hypertension (35.6%), osteoarthritis (57.8%), diabetes (22%), dislipidemia (27.1%), sleep apnea (31.4%), depression (21.2%), hyperuricemia (27.1%), gallstones (8.7%) irregular menstrual cycle (4.9%), heart failure (1.4%), sweet eating (22.5%) and binge eating (18.5%).

Average weight loss in the entire series of 1,791 patients.

Weight loss (kg, BMI, %EWL) for the entire series is represented in Figure 1. At 10 years the average weight was 101.4 ± 27.1 kg (loss of 26.3 kg), the BMI 37.7 ± 9.1 (loss of 8.5 points) and the %EWL was 38.5 ± 27.9.

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

[Enchanted 2]

Hard and persistent coughing is another thing my surgeon says can cause slippage.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

One issue about those stats is that they are old and outdated. The technique changed during those 12 years and is no longer used.

[MacMadame 81]

The other thing is that each year more and more participants dropped out of the study. The last couple of years in the 12 years had something like 35-40 patients. What happened to the rest? Some probably got bored with being studied and are doing fine. Some of them probably died, maybe not from band-related complications, but maybe not. The rest I'm guessing started gaining back the weight and dropped out of the study out of embarrassment.

It's good to know such a study exists though and that the band has been around long enough that the medical community does have a good sense of long-term results.

[Guest abs-of-steel]

I was diagnosed with a band slippage on 9-19, 7 mo post-op. I am telling everyone I know on here and chat that tooo tight is not what you want. I was too tight and had something get stuck. I pb'd everything for almost 4 days before admitting the problem and getting to the doc.

My doc said that the band is stitched in place, and held securely by scar tissue too.

The term "band slippage" is actually kind of misleading because it is not the band that has moved, it is the stomach tissue moving up or down inside the band.

All of my pb'ng caused the stomach tissue from the underneath to come up inside the band and enlarged my pouch.

So, I'm now basically unfilled waiting to see if this clears on its own...ugh