Small bowel telescope problem (intusseption)

Anybody have this problem? I had revision surgery to correct this 2 mo ago. Now I am in CA (Laguna)  on my way home to WA state and it has happened again. I'm probably going to need more surgery, possibly a reversal of the DS to a sleeve. Anyone else had this problem? Suggestions? Surgeons?

Not a common DS complication.  Before you have your DS taken down, make sure it will really take care of the problem.  Seems to me you will still have those same places where your intestines were sewed together, bypass or not!  Do some reading on this!

Other than Wikipedia, I can't find anything on this to read. I'm told it's mostly a pediatric problem. I'm at a complete loss. I haven't seen it connected to DS. I need to find someone in this area who's a good DS surgeon. The block seems to be resolving, as it has before, with hospital stay to'rest' the bowel, including  ice chips only and heavy duty pain meds. Since it's life threatening when it happens, I'm afraid to continue our trip home until I at least talk to a physician who knows what I should do. Do you know of a good DS person in Orange County CA?

I'm sorry you're going through this. The DSr I know that had it was able to have surgery and it was corrected. Here are the 2 surgeons I'm familiar with in Calif. They are both excellent.

Ara Keshishian, MD, FASMBS, FACS *
Email: [email protected]

Central Valley Bariatrics
1808 Verdugo Blvd., Suite 413
Glendale, CA 91208
Phone: 818-812-7222
Fax: 818-952-0990
Email: [email protected]

Satellite Office:
1205 Garces Highway, Suite 303
Delano, CA 93215

John M. Rabkin, MD, FACS *

Pacific Laparoscopy
2250 Hayes Street, 3rd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94117
Phone: 415-668-3200 or 1-888-848-8446 toll free
Fax: 415-668-2010
Email: [email protected]

Thanks for this response. I will have them contact the doc in Glendale on Monday. I will be in the hospital over the weekend at least. I wonder if you could contact the DSer who had this problem and see if s/he would be willing to email me. My email is [email protected]  I'd like to find out more about this. I do NOT want to have to have a revision to the sleeve, which is what the regular surgeons are thinking needs to be done.

Again, thanks for the names.

I second what Gina said.

Dr Keshishian is a brilliant surgeon and an incredibly nice man. He is one of the very top in the world for handling complications and you would be in great hands. He did my revision (VSG to DS) surgery in January. 

Good luck to you.

Tricia

Thanks for the second. I've been reading earlier posts about complications, etc and his name stands out there too. I'm hoping to get in asap, as we have to be in Seattle by 6/26 to meet 3 grandchildren flying in there to spend the summer with us. It's part of a custody thing with an acrimonious divorce behind it, so the custodial parent has not been flexible. The kids consider their time with us their breathing space, so we hate the thought of disappointing them.

Just in case, does anyone know of a good DS person in the greater Seattle area? Even Portland would probably be okay. 

There are a couple in Washington state.  Their names have been retrieved from dsfacts . com:

Matthew Martin, MD, FACS
For military health insurance covered patients.

Madigan Army Medcial Center
Bldg 9040 Fitzsimmons Dr.
Tacoma, WA 98431
Phone: 253-968-1110 or 1-800-404-4506 toll free

To get into a MF (Military Facility) have your primary care physician write a referral for you and that will begin your process. I suggest you research extensively as to which MF perform DS.

Myur S. Srikanth, MD

Center for Weight Loss Surgery
34509 Ninth Ave S Suite 103
Federal Way, WA 98003
Phone: 253-815-7774 or 1-877-815-7774 toll free
Fax: 253-815-7708
Email: [email protected]

Kirkland Office:
12303 NE 130th Lane #400
Kirkland WA 98034

I had my surgery with Dr. Clifford Deveney at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in Portland.  He is very selective on performing DS as virgin or revision surgery but has helped patients with their bariatric problems.  He once revised a MGB (mini gastric bypass) to a VSG on a patient who was experiencing severe complications of MGB and was in danger of dying.  The patient is doing very well. Another time he removed a lapband that had been inserted in Mexico.

Hope this helps!

Thank you Vicki. We are going to try to see the Glendale surgeon. If he has a solution that doesn't involve revising to a sleeve, I'll do that here and fly home. If he says revision, I'll fly home and have it done in Seattle area. Either way, we've decided there are too many remote stretches between Laguna & Seattle for me to risk riding in the car.

Intussuception does occur on adults, though you are right that it's more commonly seen in children. In adults, there is usually a cause, a lead point of some type causing the problem, which is not the case in children. So the cause needs to be determined and dealt with. I have never heard of this as a complication of the DS, though of course anything is possible.

In any event, unless it's something really major, I believe Dr. Keshishian will be able to help you without reversing the switch part of your DS. He has extensive experience with revising other bariatric operations to the DS, and people come to him from all over with complications of the DS that local surgeons (like the ones you have already spoken with) don't know how to fix. Please don't rush into a reversal that you hopefully don't need just because the local surgeons who don't do the DS don't know what else to offer you. For all we and they know, the reversal might not even address the cause of the problem.

And please let us know what happens.

Larra