Lap band vs bypass complications?

Hi! Am I thinking too negatively? I am trying very hard to choose between lap band and bypass (my insurance co. is giving me the choice). All the reading and research I have done isn't helping, but hearing people's stories is! My biggest concern is the long term possible complications, so any input I can get, especially from lap banders is helpful! Thanks! Marion

I was banded 18 months ago and in comparrison to the surgery: lap band is day surgery I was in at 8am and walking to my car by 11am, by-pass you have to stay in the hospital to make sure that after they sut your organs and rehooked them up that there isnt any leaks. Recovery time is less,I returned to work after 4 days although I work in an office so the work is easy. The by-pass requires a lot longer recovery. As a bandsters we dont experiance dumping aand we dont have that window of opportunity to loose weight. As the fat melts from oour organs the band becomes loose but we go in for a fill and its like as snung as it was the day of surgery. Hope this help, good luck on making your decision. gail

Hopefully I wont get in trouble for sending you to another site, but Lapbandtalk.com has a complications forum, and a forum for people who've lost their bands due to complications. I will say that even most of the folks who've lost their bands, while they aren't sure they'd get another one, are happy they had the first one in the first place.

It's always good to examine possible complications prior to electing to having any surgery. All forms of WLS carry potential complications. The lap-band's complications at their worst aren't likely to kill you however whereas the the worst of the RNY or DS complications certainly can. In terms of initial mortality rate (all these mortality rates you see bandied around are only for the first 30 days post-op), the RNY and DS are at least 10x higher than that of the band. The RNY or DS hold a mortality rate ranging (depending on study) between 1 in 200 to 1 in 50, whereas the band's is fewer than 1 in 2000. Banding complications can include slippage/prolapsed stomach (where either the band slips down at an angle or some stomach tissue slips up through the band, both put the band at the wrong angle), erosion (think of what happens when you tie a wire around a tree and the tree grows around the wire) on the worse end. Both occur in fewer than 3% of banding cases. Being too tight is a leading cause, although both can be spontaneous as well, and slippage can be caused by chronic vomiting. It is not normal for a bandster to be vomiting frequently at all...it's a symptom of either being too tight, something like a slippage or a behavior issue that needs to be aggressively addressed, such as eating too fasst, taking too-large bites, not chewing... There can be complications with the port and port site. Probably the most common and most troublesome is a port-site infection. Not terribly common, but if it happens, it must be treated VERY agressively. There is some thought that a n ot-fully-treated port infection can lead to band erosion. At their most extreme, the port might be removed completely in order to allow the area to recover fully without the possible interference of a foreign object. Leaks in the system are another possible complication. It's extremely rare for the band itself to be the culprit...the vast majority of the time it's the tubing or the connection between tubing and port. Sometimes it just works its way loose. Other times it's due to a mi**** during a fill (this is why we emphasize that fillgivers only be allowed up to 3 attempts to access the port...if they can't do it in 3 tries, the patient needs to insist on going under flouroscopy so the fillgiver can have a clear view....this is another reason why going with a very experienced banding practice is a wise idea...being someone's guinea pig increases the chances of ALL complications by a big margin). The band will not cause complications such as vitamin/mineral deficiences, malnutrition (unless the patient is way too tight and doesn't have the sense to insist on an unfill), pyothorax (massive infection in the thorascic cavity due to a leak not found during surgery or a ruptured staple line), staple line disruptures, strictures, fistulas, anemia (both chronic and pernicious, iron and b12 deficiencies, respectively), significant bone loss due to not properly absorbing calcium supplements, depressed immune systems, peripheral neuropathy...and many more you can find listed at OSSG-gone_wrong on yahoogroups.com... As with any of these surgeries, the best way to hedge your bets against complications is thoroughly researching both the procedure of choice and the surgeon. There's no good reason at this point to subject oneself to an inexperienced banding surgeon...the complication rates that are nice and low with experienced surgeons can increase as much as 30% with inexperienced surgeons. Also, during your research, make sure the surgeon you choose isn't looking for gimmicky shortcuts, such as a handful who are now cinching banding patients too tight to actually EAT but instead put them on long-term liquid protein fasts to induce rapid loss. While there may be some temptation to fall for this load of ____ due to the appeal of possible rapid loss, the costs are too high...a too-tight band is the leading cause of slippage and erosion, both of which can lead to the loss of one's band, a total destruction of one's metabolism, and not much prayer of maintaining whatever loss is achieved due to no re-education of eating habits. Banding is first and foremost about SENSIBLE...sensible eating, sensible lifestyle, sensible rate of loss. Avoid surgeons looking for shortcuts around this basic premise for your own sake. If the "Optifast" method worked, all of us who did Optifast back in the day would be thin...most of us ended up much fatter as a result. Nancy -156 No complications whatsoever