Information About Surgeons & Hospitals in the Raleigh/Durham/CH Area

Hi All,

I am somewhat new to the site. I used to belong to it a few years ago when I was looking into having surgery while living in MD. I moved to NC approximately two years ago and I am very happy that my insurance company here in NC allows for weight loss surgery. I just recently started reconsidering possibly having surgery and was wondering if anyone could provide me with any names of surgeons and hospitals they recommend in the Raleigh-Durham-CH area. I have done some preliminary research on my own and talked to my primary care physican. He recommended Dr. Aurora Pryor with the Duke Weight Loss Center. I also found information online about weight loss surgery through UNC. If anyone is familiar with either of these and has feedback whether good or bad to share, it is appreciated. I am also open to hearing about other surgeons/hospitals that are recommended or not recommended in this area.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Lisa

Hello,
I just had revision surgery at Duke. I had Dr. Sudan, who is in the same practice as Dr. Pryor. Dr. Sudan is over Duke's Weight Loss Surgery Center. He came from Nebraska. I am very pleased with him. The surgeries are done at Durham Regional Hospital. I had no issues with the hospital either.
Feel free to ask more questions. I'll be happy to help.
Cheryl

Welcome to OH and to North Carolina

I had surgery with Dr. Pryor back in March 2009.   She did a great job and I really like the program at Duke.    I've been very pleased with the pre-op/post-op information they provided as well as the responsiveness to questions/issues I had over my journey.  

You may hear some minor negative feedback about the office staff but they dealt with that early last year and it is MUCH improved over the past 9 months.

I would encourage you to join us at the Raleigh area support group that Barbara C leads.   We meet the third Saturday of every month at 10:00 am.   Next meeting is on Saturday the 16th.  There are a lot of other folks there who have had surgery with both Duke and UNC.   Info can be found here -- http://www.obesityhelp.com/group/bcumbo_group

Feel free to ask more questions.    I'll provide as much info as I can.

Regards,

Syd

I had my surgery 2 years ago with Dr. Pryor, and my DH had his surgery with Dr. Farrell @ UNC... So i've had a little experience with each place.  There are some big differences with what is offered between the two.  Duke is a full service weight loss clinic with excellent, excellent pre & post bariatric assistance.  They have a full staff with excellent psychologists and nutritionists.  They give you complete support, with groups and one on one meetings to let you know what to expect how to handle various situations, what to eat & how much, all about vitamins and supplements you need, and on and on and on.  I would highly recommend Duke.

Now as i said, the hubby had his surgery thru UNC... Dr. Farrell is a personable and excellent surgeon.  I can't say enough good things about him.  However the support at UNC is really lacking.  For hubby there was no pre or post surgical support, the nutritionist is not that helpful.  My  husband said that if he hadn't gone thru everything with me while i was having my surgery, and hadn't read all the handouts i had recieved from Duke, he would not have known what to do after leaving the hospital!!!

Having said all that... allow me to say the Duke is much more stringent on their rules and pre-testing and it takes much longer to get a surgical date.  I started with the free seminar (required) in May of 2007 and got a surgical date in December of 07 simply because the person who had that date got pregnant, otherwise i would have had to wait till 2008.   I felt it was worth the wait.  It took my husband 3 months or less from first visit to surgery at UNC. 

So, it basically depends on what you're looking for an how much of a hurry you're in. .
 
I would highly recommend the group meeting that are led by Barbara Cumbo leads on the 3rd Saturday of each month.... it's a large and varied group of men, women RNY's, lap banders, DS'rs... so you'll get to speak with alot of people and get alot of opinions.... Come on by... it's alot of fun and alot of good, friendly support!!! (I'm sorry to say i don't think i'll  be able to make it there this month)

You are too sweet! I was obviously typing when you posted...

We'll miss you this month, but look forward to seeing you soon.

 

Hi Lisa,

First of all, welcome to the NC forum. There are several programs here in the greater triangle area.

*  Duke has the only ASBS Center of Excellence designation and it has a fairly large program with 5 Surgeons, 2 Dieticians, 2 Psychologist, 2 RNPs and a bariatric coordinator that manages the new bariatric wing at Durham Regional where the surgeries are actually performed.  Also, because they are a teaching hospital, they always have fellows and interns working with the various disciplines. As Syd mentioned, they have had more than their share of issues with the front office, but as he also mentioned, it appears that they have ironed out much of that now. Duke performs most of the different types of WLS surgeries available. The most common is the RNY, but they also do the LapBand, DS and Gastric Sleeve. They may also do a few others. I have more experience with Duke, because my husband and I both had our surgeries there. Duke has a pretty extensive and intensive pre-op and post-op program that requires nutritional and psychological counseling throughout the pre-op and first year post op periods. This is a significant part of why they are a center of excellence. Of course, there are other factors as well. They have a relatively new bariatric wing that is set up just for the bariatric practices and it is SWEET. It wasn't in place when I had my surgery, but was when my husband had his and made the visit much easier in so many ways. One of the down-sides for some people with the Duke Program is that it often takes longer to get through the process and to surgery with them than it does with the programs in the area. That would not deter me, but to be honest, it does deter some.

*  UNC Chapel Hill is a much smaller program. It doesn't have the same level of nutritional or psychological counseling support available. They are in the process of trying to obtain ASBS Center of Excellence designation, but it's a time consuming, costly process and they are not there yet. We have a number of members that have used them and are quite pleased with their result. We even have at least one couple that has used both Duke and UNC and would likely be able to given an even assessment of both program's strengths and weaknesses, from their own personal experiences. I know that they do the RNY and LapBand, but I'm sure sure of which other surgeries they perform.

* Dr. Enoch's practices in Raleigh at WakeMed and Rex. He has quite a vibrant practice and is also pursuing a Center of Excellence designation, but hasn't gotten their yet. He has a private practice. We have a number of patients from his practice that will surely share their experiences with you as well. He primarily offers RNY and LapBand, but I heard that he has recently started to offer DS. I'm not sure about that. 

* Dr. Moran is another  surgeon in the area that does Weight Loss Surgeries. Originally, he and Dr. Enoch where in practice together, but disbanded a few years ago. His is the smallest practice in the area. 

As Syd mentioned, I hold support group meetings in the area and you are most welcome to join us. You can find information about upcoming meetings at www.meetup.com/nc-wls

I look forward to getting to know you.

Thank you all for all of the feedback. It was extremely helpful. I will definitely try to make it to the support group meeting very soon. I am sure I could learn a lot more from there as well. I am very early in the process and haven't decided yet if surgery is right for me or not. I am planning to attend the education seminars that both UNC and Duke offer next week.

Thanks again and I look forward to meeting some of you at a support group meeting in the near future! :)

Lisa

Barbara,

I had two quick follow up questions concerning the support group meetings. I noticed that one is on the third Saturday and another is in the evening on the first Thursday of every month. Is there a difference between these two? Also, is the the meeting on the third Saturday at Golden Corral or Perkins on Millbrook?

Thanks for letting me know about these meetings.

Lisa