Question:
DS Revision

I am still researching DS. I read somewhere that the DS is completly reversible. Is this true? CK    — drjakata (posted on December 5, 2003)

December 5, 2003
Nop it isnt, a large percentage of the stomach is cut away and tossed out. The RNY retains all parts. Although if your considering WLS consider it PERMANENT! Its very rare and dangerous to get reversed.
   — bob-haller

December 5, 2003
Hi Cynthia, That's kind of a subjective thing. With the DS - depending on your surgeon - anywhere from 70 to 80% of your stomach (along the greater curvature) is cut away - leaving you with a banana shaped stomach (and the pylorus intact). The intestinal rerouting is completely reversable. The cut-away portion of the stomach, of course, is gone forever. However, the stomach is made up of some pretty stretchy material, and it does, in fact stretch back out to a small normal sized stomach. The great part about the portion of the stomach that is cut away is that it is the part that houses the gland that secretes the hormone ghrelin - which triggers you to feel hungry. Clinical studies are beginning to show that the MO population tend to have an overactive production of this hormone! Seriously - after my DS was the first time in my life that I understood what the words "full" or "satisfied" meant in relation to eating. I'm 17 months post-op from BPD/DS and I can now eat nearly an entire "normal" sized meal. The restriction is with you for quite a while, though. I couldn't eat that much 3 times a day yet - just once. I do have to eat smaller meals or snacks several times throughout the day, however. Hope that helps some! Blessings, dina
   — Dina McBride

December 5, 2003
While the RNY surgery DOEs retain all parts, that doesn't mean it's always completely reversible. Some surgeons routinely severe the vagus nerve (and sometimes it's done accidentally). This can make it impossible to re-activate the function of the pylorus. Also, you've got a new hole in the stomach that has to be sewn shut, and this can give some problems, too. On the whole, the chances of restoring completely normal function is greater with the DS.
   — MsBatt

December 5, 2003
As others have said, the stomach portion is not reversible with the DS, but it functions more like a normal stomach does than the RNY pouch, so it probably wouldn't need to be reversed anyway. To reverse a DS, you'd want to reverse the intestines part. It's possible to switch the intestines back to their original form (or bypass more intestine if you're not losing enough weight) with either the RNY or DS, but such revisions are said to be quite risky - possibly more risky than the original surgery because of the scar tissue. Most surgeons would probably only consider a reversal to be a last resort. If you're worried about reversal, you might want to consider the lap-band, since it's considered the most easily reversed surgery. Once the lap-band is removed from the stomach, the stomach goes back to its original form and you're back to the way you were beforehand.
   — K M.