Question:
Is there any disadvantage in using a surgeon who is experienced

in the procedure you are having but who is not a member of the ABSA? If what and why? thanks,    — [Anonymous] (posted on August 5, 2001)

August 5, 2001
I can't really tell you the answer but I can tell you that you can certainly gain a lot of insight about a surgeon from the medical board website. You can search the surgeon you are interested in and find out just what they specialize in and if they have had any disciplinary action held against them.
   — K T.

August 5, 2001
The ASBS is not a governing board. No one goes in and watches a doc do a procedure & decides on membership. But it IS an exchange of info about this subject, the latest techniques, what works, what doesn't. So, your risk with going with a general surgeon may be that he is not as familiar with our special risk, that a bariatric suregon "expects", or that you may be getting a procedure that is rarely done any more because the failure rate is too high. The other thing is that you will not have much of a follow up program, generally speaking or it may be designed to put wt on people, just extracted from an existing diet plan that appears to "make sense" on paper and not customized for someone who has forfeited a normal digestive system.
   — vitalady