anyone else have band failure issues?

I am looking for anyone that has suffered from band failure. I am talking about complete failure where your band does not hold a fill. If you have had this issue what was the out come of it? Did you need to have the band replaced? Did you decided to have the band removed and go with a by-pass or did you decide to leave well enough alone. I believe that this issue is most common in the smaller older 4cc band. Please contact me if you have had issues. I am researching the failure rate of this band and the Mfg. I had band failure with the smaller 4cc band and just had it replaced with the newer larger one. There could be a product liability issue with this band as well if there are enough people with failure of this device a class action suite against the Mfg. With my conversations with the Mfg, they seem to like to blame the Dr's that do the surgeries rather then take responsibility for their product of which they do not even have a warrantee for Thanks for all your help shaz

My 4cc band has failed, but mine has slipped. I saw a surgeon this week and he said that my band was empty, but there should have been about 1cc in it. I will be switch to RnY, which he will be doing open because of the revision/band removal. I have the option to switch to the new larger band but don't trust it for me anymore and will go for bypass, instead of waiting for "band #2" to fail before getting a bypass. Initially I lost 100# but have gained 55 back over the last 14 months. I have been banded 2 years. My surgeon who placed the band (not the one I have now, I live in a diffferent state) was part of the initial FDA trials and is a very competent surgeon. I always blamed myself. I never thought it could be THE BAND! Please keep me updated in your quest, I am very interested. ~Erica

Erica, the doctors in the FDA trials didn't sew the bands in place like they do now so there was a high rate of slippage. This is my understanding after reading on the lapband board for quite a while. You might just need it sewn in place and then get good fills. Do you go to the Lapband board? Someone there that has been banded for a while might be able to help you. GrannyLaLa (hoping to be banded soon)