Dr. Van Wagner

Hello All,

This is my first post. I went to a seminar with Dr. Wagner. He seems very professional. I was wondering what comments, positive or negative, that you might have about him to help me with my decision to go forward with him as my surgeon. Thank you

I dont know if i even know of anyone that has had surgery with Dr. Wagner but that doesnt mean anything at all.....Welcome to the Mo. Board and im sure that someone one here has heard of him or knows about him....what hospital is he out of???? please come back and talk to us..

Dr. Wagner works with the Newstart program. Heart of America Bariatrics. He does surgery at St. Alexius and Ballas surgery center. Also Des Pere Hosp. I think.

I have heard of some people going to those centers but still no nothing about them or the doctors there. Help someone i know there has to be someone on here that is lurking that knows something. Please tell garfield something here.
by the way hope you stick around with us....

Hi, this is my first post, too.  I had my surgery 1/7/08 with Dr. Van Wagner.  I am glad that I chose him as my bariatric surgeon.  He is very professional.  He does not engage in small talk.  His conversations are limited to your care and surgery.  He is very informatiive.  So far, I have been in and out of the office quickly for each post-op visit.  This truely means a lot to me.  My parents had another surgeon for RNY and if I had to choose, there is no comparison.  Good Luck.
Feel free to check out my profile. 

Not trying to stir up any trouble but have you researched all of the different WLS procedures?

While RNY and LapBand are the most commonly done there is also the VSG and DS procedures to consider. This is very major surgery with life long effects. Knowing the pluses and minuses of all available WLS is extremely important. It's also important that when receiving information about the different procedures that the person telling you that info doesn't have a vested stake in the outcome. You wouldn't go to a Honda dealership and expect to get the full story about Toyotas; likewise you should be careful about the information you receive at the seminars. Look at pubmed, journal articles and long term studies; while this sounds hard if you just posted a request at each of the WLS boards here on OH you'd get links to all the info you would want.

I tend to over analyze things but for something as important as WLS I can't stress enough the importance of doing your homework of which procedure fits your intended life style and then which surgeon you feel most confident with.

Please explain what you mean by vested interest. Don't all doctors have a vested interest in their patients success and the products they use? I'm not sure I understand. Thanks for the insight.