VBG or Lap Band?

is the VSG the gastric sleeve surgery?

I had the VBG in 1999; lost 70 ish pounds.  Regained it all within 3 years.  Just had revision to RNY and surgeon confirm my staple line had come completely undone.  This surgery has a very high failure rate and is not done so often anymore.  I cannot comment on the lapband from personal experience but I know two people who have had it; one lost 1/2 of her weight... has constant problems.  The other lose 70% of her weight and has maintained for two years.  Good luck to you!

I had a VBG approximately 10 years ago and lost 85 pounds but gained back over half within 3 years.  I currently am 115 pounds less than my starting point, 184 versus 299.  However, this has been at a price.  I gained wait back because I started consuming ice cream and thick soups because I could barely eat anything else without experience long bouts of unproductive vomiting that could last from 1 to 10 hours.  Enough so that in 2007 I was admitted to the heart clinic due to scar damage done to my heart from the diaphragm banging into it over and over again.  I did not know I had severe stenosis of the pouch outlet.  That was  because the doctor who had performed the procedure was long gone.  I should add that he was supposed to have done a roux-en-y gastric bypass and I did not know that was not the surgery for a number of years.  Anyway, I decided I had to face the problem directly and two years ago changed my eating habits back to salads, meats, whole grains etc and was able to shed 65 pounds without stringent dieting.  By changing my eating habits, I made my problem worse and have bouts of pain and unproductive vomiting every day.  Finding a doctor, in Canada, who even wanted to look at the problem took a while but I finally found an excellent doctor who is well respected and knows his stuff.  The solution will be to revise to a roux-en-y bypass, if possible.  I am suffering from a number of hernias, reflux and significant scar tissue and thinning of the esophagus wall so that a bypass could be too risky or impossible, if that is so, he will do another procedure to close up the current oulet and open a wider outlet directly into the stomach which brings on another whole set of factors and will definitely cause me to gain weight.  I was surprised to hear that he feared moving to a roux-en-y could drop my weight dangerously low due to my condition, perhaps below 130 lbs, so I need to spend three months gaining strength to combat this possibility.  If you look at the success rate of BVG, it is abhorent and those that succeed have mostly succeeded in spite of the massive difficulties.   To that end, I would never recommend BVG and anyone considering any procedure to help with weight loss needs to know it isn't a panacea.  If you are willing to work hard and change your eating habits, it can kickstart the loss, but insure you review all the statistics, side effects and potential risks. 

I had a Vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG) (stomach stapling) in June 6,2000. So @ this point it's been 10 yrs. I had a bad DR. and only 2 follow ups. I've gotten so many side effects from GERD, hernia, gastritis & GOUT! I lost about 140 in a yr! (Dancing for hours all the time) Also gaining more weight than I lost Approximately gaining 80LBS MORE! Hitting a max of 610 lbs! I Threw up every day! The only thing that stayed down was anything sweet, fried! All healthy foods came up even stuff like baked chicken (I love) all meats came up, except cold cuts. All fatty foods stayed down all lean meats came up. SMH. DRs told me my stapling broke down (endoscopy/ upper G.I.) My Surgeon said it was a mess of scar tissue my revision took (6) six hrs. I have a friend now who had the Lap Band and she's eating everything! Not even talking about her weight loss anymore and is always hungry! Go for the RNY or sleeve. U'll lose more w/the RNY. Best wishes!