Question:
Exactly what is done with a revision?

i would like to better understand the whole revision process: what is done? why do people want them? possible complications, etc.    — RNlvnCARSON (posted on November 15, 2007)

November 15, 2007
I'm having a revision from VBG to RNY in two weeks. I'd like to know too. Hope you get a ton of replies!
   — suzannem

November 15, 2007
A revision is a modification or correction of a prior bariatric surgery. Some RNY patients will stretch their pouches; the revision then makes the pouch smaller. Some RNY patients will suffer a staple line disruption (if their pouch was only separated by a staple line from their remnant stomach) where food will travel through the pouch to the remnant and the people will never feel full. A revision would transect the remnant from the pouch and correct this problem. Some banded patients either have problems with the band, experience lots of discomfort with the fills or are otherwise not successful with that system; those patients can have a "revision" which is really just their having an RNY and the band removed. People have revisions because no surgery is 100% foolproof.
   — SteveColarossi

November 15, 2007
And the two Steve missed would be due to a bungled first surgery. Sadly, it happens. I bring my doc here horrible things from around the country (inside of wonderful ppl, just to clarify), and he often just tears down what was there and rebuilds it. And the other would be an intact surgery that simply isn't working. One person I brought had a perfectly intact proximal RNY, but she was still ay 270#. He didn't see anything wrong with it, per se, but revised only her intestinal portion to a distal RNY and presto, she's 130 now. Just the wrong surgery FOR HER. . . . Occasionally, there are ppl whose surgery was too radical and they may need it made more conservative, for whatever reason. One lady had a VBG in 1992, and when the staple line failed in 1994, another doc restapled it (that is NOT done these days). Se vomited for 11 yrs, then revised to RNY. Her stomach had flipped over itself, so she was never, ever going to stop vomiting. Amazing things. *** important note **** these are really rare instances!
   — vitalady

November 17, 2007
Yes, revisions are done as the others have said why. Another route is to have a revision, but have it switched to the duodenal switch surgery. It is just one other weight loss surgery that is not done very often and that could because not many bariatric surgeons offer this DS as most call it. I would go to the DS forum here on OH or to duodenalswitch.com and read all about it. I am hoping to get a revision to a DS because my RnY failed. Many, many people go the DS route, some for the first time, and some after a failed other surgery.
   — KRWaters