IS THERE INFORMATIONAL SITES FOR DS?

IS THERE A SITE THAT EXPLAINS DIFFERENT TYPES OF DS?  I SEEN POSTS ABOUT AN SADI AND A LOOP DS... AND THEN A QUESTION OF HOW LONG COMMON CHANNEL IS??...iS THERE DIFFERENT LENGTHS?

IS IT LIKE THE BYPASS WHERE THERE IS A PROXIMINAL, MEDIAL AND DYSTAL?

IM JUST FEELING LIKE IM DUMB AND DONT KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT THIS YET, I WANT TO LEARN ALL I CAN.

THANKS AGAIN

PAM

http://www.dsfacts.com/index.php is probably the best single site.  Searching for BPD-DS on yahoo helped me as well to find lots of videos that showed pictures that helped me understand.

A SADI or Loop DS are the same thing.  It is an operation similar to the BPD-DS (what most people mean when they say DS).  It hasn't been around as long, but some say it is safer.  There is not a lot of data yet and few to no good studies.  It is frustrating to live on the bleeding edge of medical science, but not much you can do but find a surgeon you *really* trust and do what they say.

Common channels can be any length.  If you do a search you should get a lot more data.  IMHO: 75 is considered normal but on the short side.  100 normal.  150 is considered still normal, but on the long side.  Lots of controversy here as well.  Again, find a surgeon you trust.  Malnutrition can be more of a problem on the shorter side and not reaching target weight is the problem on the longer sides. 

There is nothing like asking lots of questions and the boards are all great sources of info.  Don't hold back.  I am sure that every question you ask there are 100 lurkers that will be thankful you went for it.

I think the Sadi-s shows promise...SO FAR....only time and more patients having it done will tell. I posted this elsewhere....

From my research it seems that in both procedures food basically travels the same amount of small intestine...in the DS it doesn't mix with any of the digestive "juices" until it reaches the common channel which is on average 100cm. Whereas in the SADI, it travels the entire length of the small intestine mixed with the juices which is approx. 250cm.

So I think the question is...how much more absorption occurs in that extra span of approx on average 150 cm where it's traveling mixed with the digestive juices.

DS- 150cm alimentary limb - food only

100cm common channel - food and digestive juices

Sadi-s - 250cm common channel - food and digestive juices

I've seen people with CC lengths of 50 - 175 post. I agree 100 seems to be the current sweet spot for a standard DS. Many
surgeons use the HESS method which really sets your common channel at a percentage of your bowel length as opposed to a set
length.  Here is another resource in addition to DSFacts that will help. The author Dr. Keshishian (Sp?) is a well regarde DS doctor on the west coast.

http://www.dssurgery.com/    and a link to an article of his about bowel length and common channel length.

http://www.dssurgery.com/newsletters/length-of-small-bowel.php

The gastric bypass is a totally different surgery, with a totally different method of rerouting.  A distal RNY is sort of a hybrid of the DS.  the bypass is further down the small intestine, and that decreases the amount of nutrients and the time your body has to absorb them.  Proximal and medial allow you to absorb more nutrients, but in all three, you still have a created food pouch, instead of a sleeved fully functioning stomach.

With the gastric bypass ( proximal distal or medial) you will lose the mnalabsorption component after 18 to 24 months.  You may keep more of that with the distal, because so much more of the small intestine is bypassed. What happens is that the villi responsible for absorbing nutrients from the foods you eat grow more dense in the intestinal lining, to capture more of the nutrients from the food moleculsed that are present.

Malabsorption with the DS is permanent, because a much greater length of small intestine is re-routed, and even though the villi grow more dense, they cannot overcome the effects of the new small intestine configuration.   Some surgeons give everyone the same length, which can be as short as 75 cm, or as long as 110 cm .  Other surgeons use a formula for figuring the length for each individual, named the Hess Method, after Dr. Douglas Hess, a bariatric surgeon who developed the equation.  That truly makes the DS a customized surgery.

Don't feel dumb, Pam.  The only dumb question is one that's not asked.  Go take a look at www.dsfacts.com, and also search Duodenal Switch for other sites with more information on the procedure, and its function. 

W