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Originally Posted by sue4491  re: 88 percent of banders have complications. Well I didn't see that figure on the Allergan site however, what it might mean by complications is ANYTHING from vomiting to nausea etc. And I think complications listed like that can be said about any surgery. |
I already responded to this post but I'm going to add something else.
Yes, that 88% of complications do indeed include nausea and vomiting but let me tell you about the N/V with a band.
I averaged 21 vomiting episodes weekly with the band. At face value a bit of N/V doesn't seem like a big deal but with the band it is a HUGE deal. It's not minor at all. Scar tissue tends to grow under the band over time thus giving the person more restriction than they want or need. You can unfill the band but unless you go in and surgically remove the scar tissue from under the band that will continue to grow you end up with far too much restriction.
I remember towards the end of my band time I couldn't eat solid food. I could only consume thinned down protein shakes made with water instead of milk and only at room temp. Too hot or too cold and it came right back up. Bands are fickle and absolutely everything affects restriction. Time of day - people are usually tighter in the AMs. Time of month - women usually find more restriction during their cycles. Altitude, food temp, weather, mood - ohhhh, that is a big one. Stress and anxiety can cause your band to clamp shut tighter than a girl on prom night. What does this mean? It means a ton of vomiting. Just trying to drink water is impossible.
I vomited so much that I have forever esophageal damage. I have to slowly eat and drink, I have to think through each swallow or I choke. And the kicker is that I don't even have the damn thing in me anymore. But this is the damage from a little N/V. I also have acid reflux so severely that I have days where I vomit stomach acid every couple of hours. We had hoped that removing the band would fix this. Not so much. It's irreversible damage to my esophagus.
And you know what? My problems are not rare at all. They are common and typical. Oh... the level of damage to my esophagus is not typical, but what caused it is very typical. Some studies show that due to the anatomical changes in the stomach from banding 33% of people will end up with severe reflux. And what happens with chronic acid reflux? Barretts esophagus. I really wonder how many bandsters will end up with esophageal cancer down the road in comparison to non banded people? Only time will tell.
The band provides the slowest weight loss, the least weight loss, the highest regain, and the most mechanical problems of all surgery types. 25% have to have their band removed in the first five years and to be honest, I think that figure is low. Just talk to ANY WLS surgeon, they will usually tell you they are doing far more removals than they are initial placements.
What is really sad is that many are ashamed to admit they need WLS. So they finally suck it up and go get a band and then they have all the usual band complications. They go to their standard issue band mill doctor and the band mill doctor will never admit the band is a horror. Instead they blame the person for not following the magical rules. My own surgeon did it to me and he's not even a band mill. I recall one day I went to him telling him I couldn't even keep protein shakes down most days and he told me I needed to chew better. I needed to chew a thinned down protein shake with WATER at room temp? I went off on him and told him NEVER to remind me of the idiotic band rules again. And I went on to tell him that if he didn't listen to what I was saying and listen carefully we were going to duke it out! Clearly, I didn't mean that in a literal way but I just needed him to HEAR me.
Finally he did. And he started 'hearing' all the other people just like me. He was just like everyone else... oh, surely it can't be the band it just has to be the person not chewing well enough, eating too fast, eating too much. My own surgeon watched me go from morbidly obese to looking a bit like a crack whore I was so thin from being unable to eat. My labs were a mess, my electrolytes were bad, I was suffering from malnutrition, I was weak and sick. He finally got it, it wasn't ME it was the BAND.
Do you know the country of Chile isn't doing banding anymore? And yes, this was from before the earthquake. Many hopsitals across the world are no longer doing banding. Euro doctors reported at an ASMBS meeting about a year ago that they are shying away from banding and opting for the safer sleeve. Many doctors in the US are declining to do bands. They are dangerous long term.
Your buddy Terry Simpson is very likely in a bit of a pickle right now. When he decided to go from a talented and skilled DS and revision surgeon to band mill cash cow he started dissing all the other procedures claiming they were unnecessarily risky and ineffective and essentially, the band was God's gift to fat folks.
What is he going to do now? Business is down, it's down for all the band mills. The band mills are left to dealing with the complications and band removals. Even Kovidian, a sister company to Allergan the band maker - is giving the band about 5 more years. They are pushing the hell out of it, working with the FDA to get guidelines lowered for BMI requirements. They are milking the band for as long as they can. So what is Terry going to do? Continue pushing the band or admit he opted for the cash cow instead of patient safety? He surely is in a bit of a business bind right now. He used to be the elite of WLS surgeons in AZ, but those days ended when he opted for the band mill cash cow. His rep just isn't what it used to be after he started dissing all and I do mean ALL other surgery types. The very surgery types he used to do.
All in all my point here is simple, you can dismiss the stats as though a bit of N/V is no big deal but it is a very big deal.
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