Question:
Staple Line Disruption????

I am 6 weeks post op and for the most part beginning to physicaly feel like myself again, however I still do vomit and sometimes it's very fierce, and can go on for what seems to be forever. At this stage in my post op is there any way of staple line disruption? Lap RNY 296/246/150    — jane O. (posted on August 9, 2003)

August 9, 2003
Sounds more like a stricture at this point than an SLD. Most surgeons transect now, which vertually eliminates SLD. Symptoms of SLD would more more like being able to eat way more than you should at this stage, and gaining weight rather than losing. I would check with my surgeon to see if you might have a stricture.
   — Happy I.

August 10, 2003
I agree with the previous poster. SLD would make you eat like a horse. I do have naother thought though, besides the stricture. I went 6 weeks with zero throwing up. Anything I ate went down great. At 6 weeks I started in throwing up at least one meal almost every day. I had the cookie tossing problem for about 2-1/2 months, although it was getting less often towards the end. At 11 weeks or so the surgeon scoped me and found nothing to explain it but he did decide to dilate my stoma a little to about 16mm. In hind sight I think my total problem came from eating too fast. It was about that time that I was venturing into more things and denser thicker foods. Prior to that I was eating soft, shredded, chopped things that went down without any effort. I chewed these denser things very well, as I got to double check when it came out. Sorry for being gross. But I think I was shoveling it in too fast. To make matters worse I then shifted back to the soft stuff that I knew worked which did not force me to figure out the problem. I eventually did. I have only thrown up twice in the past 2+ months and 1 was because it was halibut (I still do not tolerate thick dense fish - haddock, salmon, halibut) and the other was because I inhaled some deli ham. So I was paid back for eating wrong. So do some hard looking at your eating habits and see if there isn't something tell tale there. Also call the doctor too as there may be something physically wrong also. Good Luck!
   — zoedogcbr

August 10, 2003
Yes, it's certainly possile to have SLD this early. BUT since you are lap RNY, you are probably transected. The non-transecting stapler is HUMONGOIUS, in comparison to the lap one. If you are vomiting from eating too much or too fast or drinking with meals, you'd soon know that. If you are vomiting on 1-2 oz of soft or well chewed food, then you'd need looking at. SLD doesn't always make people eat more, nor allow them to eat more, unless it unzips completely. It might make you vomit if the acid had come up through the SLD back into the pouch. But as I said, your lap pretty much precludes the possiblity of you're being done the old fashioned way.
   — vitalady