Just a stapled stomach? Or is there something in there for support?

When you had your new stomach created, did they leave some kind of support device in there? I can't recall the name of what I'm talking about. I was on the boards and mentioned my after surgery eating requirements. Someone called them out as being too extreme. They said that I would have a " " inside of my stomach and it could handle a scrambled egg. Does that sound familiar to anyone? Do you know what the name of said thing is called?  Something that protects the staples?  I'm going to ask my surgeon if I'm going to have one of those things.

 Your pyloric valve, maybe? That's not anything foreign that is left in your stomach. That's a very important part of your anatomy that is left intact and that allows you to eat things like a scrambled egg. It means you get to avoid dumping, and things getting stuck, like what happens with the RNY. 

Lynda

I think it is called a Silastic ring.  As far as I know, most DS surgeons do not use it.  It is spoken of more frequently in VSG surgeries.  I could be mistaken, but that is my understanding.  When your doc does use a Silastic ring, you have to follow your postop instructions to a T as far as eating goes or you can really hurt yourself and your new healing tummy.

I doubt it.  I've never heard of a DS being done with a silastic ring - that is for the RNY stoma, not for the DS anastomoses.

Your stomach will be both stapled and sutured.

I have no idea what was used to close my stomach and never thought to ask. I had staples on the outside, though, and they were much less painful coming out than stitches.

Are you obsessing now?

No!..........maybe a little.

Perhaps what you are talking about is a Valtrac ring, which is used by some surgeons to support the healing of the duodenal-ileal anastomosis, and/or the RNY anastomosis where the biliopancreatic limb is attached to the alimentary limb.  This is a dissolvable device, which takes about 3 weeks to dissolve - during this time, patients should not be eating anything solid, to avoid the potential of a chunk of undigested food from getting stuck in the ring and obstructing the intestine.

1998 Hess Report

www.duodenalswitch.com/procedure/1998hess/1998hess.html - CachedSimilarYou +1'd this publicly. Undoby DS Hess - Cited by 384 - Related articles
There are two anastomosis, both of which are made with the Valtrac ring anastomoser. This has significantly decreased our operative time and reduced possible ...

Yup, that's it.  I looked up the old post that I remembered and it was actually you telling me about it.  I'm just wondering if I move to soft foods after 2-3 weeks of liquids if I'll be OK. Move on to soft foods that is.

I was rereading what you had wrote.  I want to be compliant to what my surgeon is telling me, but I think I may not go through with 4 weeks of liquids after surgery.  I take the nutrition class the day before surgery, so I'm not sure if it's clear liquids or not.

I'm just trying to formulate a game plan for myself, or contingency plan would be more accurate.

 Sounds like the Valtrac V-BAR.  Here's a picture:




It's made of the same polyester that adsorbable sutures are made of (polyglycolic acid) and has barium in it so it will show up on xrays.  It takes a few weeks to adsorb completely as Diana said.

Typically the sleeve gastrectomy is made using a staple gun that leaves rows of staples to prevent leaking.  Some will use a fibrin glue over the staples as an added precaution against leaks, but there is no device left behind.  

I don't know of any other potential device they might be talking about.