My answer to Maria's article (re-post)

I tried to paste this as a table but the formatting went wrong so the columns don't "fit". Please note (as my doc pointed out) that the first set all deal with bands implanted using the older perigastric technique which had a HIGHER complication rate than the pars flaccida which is now used. I do not know the country of origin of the studies, neither have I read them myself. I was given a warning that the journal in which they appear is strictly copyright and so I am not publishing that on the net! But if anyone wants to know, PM me.  I am not clear on copyright law and don't want to fall foul of it!

Clearly the results are not consistent! 

                     patients     over time     port/tubing probs   slips/dilation    erosion   re-ops

Favrotti           1791           12 years           11.2%                   3.9%               0.9%        5.9%
Vertuyen         543              7                         2.9                       4.6                   0.9            6.8
Weiner            984              8                         2.5                       4.5                   0.3            3.9
O'Brien           709              6                          3.6                    12.5                   2.8           18.9
Chevalier      1000            7                          5.7                     10.4                  0.3             11.0
Zehetner         190             6                         2.6                       2.6                   2.1             8.5
Zinzindohoue  500           3                          7.8                       8.6                     0              10.4
Tolonen            280           7                          10.6                     6.5                   3.3            24.4
Miceletto           684           5                          6.8                        6.1                   1.0            6.3
Dargent           1180           7                         none stated       8.8                     1.8           12.7

The following are shorter term studies all using the more modern pars flaccida technique.

Ponce            1014             4                         1.2                        2.3                    0.2         8 removed
parikh              749              3                         2.4                        2.9                   0.1           10.7
Holloway          500             3                        9.2                        5.0                   1.0           not stated
Watkins          2411            3                         2.3                        5.1                   0.1              8
Singhal           1140            3                        0.35                      0.26                  0.09        2.1     

Please note that I am not entering into any "my stats are better than your stats"  about this! These stats neither support not repudiate my own views!

Kate

 wish I was in a study 0 probs in 6 years. Lost half the weight and maintained. Dissapointed in weight loss yes, without band I would still be gaining, prob over 300 by now. My pattern was weight gain to a new high after each weight loss that I was unable to maintain for more than a few months. Mentally I have gained self-esteem, that is as lifesaving as the weight lost.

Me too (wish I was in a study!). 15 months to lose my weight, 3 1/2 years maintaining (with one blip!). Did have a leak which was sorted by minor op. so I would be a re-op stat!

Kate

What's inane as well (and I am not blaming MARIA for the inanity; the STUDY is at fault) is that it's based on less than THREE HUNDRED band patients and that it's a fairly old study. How many thousands of bands have been implanted in the 10 or so years since that study was performed? 

You would think that someone ( BAND MANUFACTURERS, perhaps??) would spend the $$ to conduct a more extensive and more up-to-date study! 

I'm in 2 band studies right now. They are 3 year studies and we are at the halfway mark. So, maybe someday we will get to see the results.

Thanks for adding this. I know I shouldn't get all worked up, but I was really upset last night! Good job on your weight loss.

Hello

I do think that there's a lot of negativity out there.  I think I'm a perfect example of a Band patient that wasn't doing very well and was very negative (but I didn't show my negativity because I was embarrassed the band wasn't working).  I don't know why or what changed but I just decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and get off my butt and try again.  Thanks to some wonderful friends they got me going to the gym and the rest is history.  I have been losing very well ever since....So far 140+ lbs lost and still losing.  I think sometimes people direct all of their energy to negativity...that energy could be used to lose weight.   

 

This is just me wondering out loud.....why must there be an answer (on a seperate post) to Maria article? I believe the title of her post could have be word different but that was her option on how she titled the post. It is not her article, she merely posted it, and really isnt this sort of thing expected from her by now, she is unhappy with her band and "would not recommend it to her worst enemy".   My heart aches for her that the band did not live up to her expection, however I know I am wishing for a lot but can we not go tick for tock or stats for stats. 

Because the information Kate has posted would be lost in the other thread. 

Simply because Maria's post had already generated lots of replies and i didn't want this to get lost!

It is good to see that there are lots of studies which do not show the band in a bad light and another reason for making a new thread is that quite a lot of people have Maria blocked and so would not read the stats.

We see so many posts with negative stats that I think it is worth making a point that many long term studies do not show the band in a bad light. I also think that this table I have pasted here is the only one that ever gets posted which is not put out by the doom and gloom merchants, So i am not going to apologise for posting it!

You may have noticed that I ended by saying I was not using it to draw conclusions!

Maria and I get on OK and she knows I have sympathy for her.

Kate