stupid question about the old fashioned stomach stapling

Hi! I was talking to a co worker of mine about my possible up coming WLS and that I plan to have the sleeve.  She had that stomach stapling procedure a really long time ago -- like I believe in the 80's or possibly late 70's.  She ended up having major complications about 15 years after the surgery and had to have the staples removed.  She ended up with barret's esophagus.  She wanted to know what is the difference between what I plan to have done and what she had (other than the obvious that she didn't actually have the portion of her stomach removed.) She was trying to say it doesn't really seem much different.  Well, I honestly know nothing at all about the stomach stapling that they used to do so I couldn't answer her at all.
does anyone know anything about it?
Thanks!
Amy

Hi Amy!  Well If I'm thinking of the same surgery as you're talking about then, the old fashioned stomach stapling is fashioned into a pouch.  The barretts esophagus is more common with pouchie procedures.

You will have a sleeve and the majority of your food will not be held at the top of your stomach/bottom of your throat (so long as you do not over eat) - and your food will go down into what stomach you have left.

Here are some helpful diagrams:

Stomach Stapling:

 http://img.webmd.com/dtmcms/live/webmd/consumer_assets/site_ images/articles/health_and_medical_reference/healthy_living/ weight_loss_restrictive_surgery.jpg

Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy:

http://www.drsharma.ca/wp-content/uploads/sharma-obesity-ver ticalsleevegastrectomy.jpeg

 

Hope this helps!!!

That's great information, missdiva! I never realized that the old stomach stapling involved a band!  I'm soooooo glad I'm getting this band out of my body!

Great! That is helpful.  thank you!

Anything that involves a band is really hard to live with and reflux is a buggar.

Lucky for us, we do not have a pouch, stoma, or band of any kind.

My aunt had the original "stomach stapling" for her first WLS.  It's different from the VBG shown above.  Basically, they ran a line of staples down the stomach to partition it and make the part that takes food smaller... like a sleeve, but with a single row of staples and without removing the excess stomach.  She lost great and kept it off well for a few years but ended up gaining every single pound back and more.  When they scoped her in preparation for RNY, there was no sign of the original staples.  Don't know if they disintegrated and absorbed or what, but the stomach looked like it had never had anything done to it.  

With the sleeve there's a triple row of titanium staples, the remnant stomach is gone (and therefore won't produce nearly as much ghrelin to trick you into thinking you're hungry, or making you eat compulsively when you don't need to), and there's some nice strong scar tissue there, so even if the staples DID go funky, it wouldn't change anything.

(btw, she's also gained her weight back post-RNY.  Always gotta push those boundaries... I try very hard to see her as an example of what NOT to do after bariatric surgery,)