I had my first band done on Dec. 21 2007 and everything went fine. I went from 308 lbs to around 235 and stayed around 235 until around July of 2009 then i noticed i was slowly starting to put weight back on and was gradually being able to eat more. I wasnt really paying much attention until one day I stepped on the scales and i was back up to 260lbs. So I scheduled an appointment with my Dr. to get a fill, when I explain to him what is going on he tries to remove the fluid from my band and its empty. So he says the port must be leaking and schedules surgery to replace it. I go in for the surgery the same day my wife is having her Realize band put in and when he does the surgery he finds that the port is fine but that the tubing from the port to the band is cracked almost all the way to the band. So he closes me up and schedules surgery for the next day to remove the old band and put in a new Realize band and gets approval from the insurance company because of faulty equipment. so here is my question: has anyone else ever heard of the tubing cracking like this, is this a common problem with the LAP-BAND® brand or was my case unique? The second question is that about the same time i started putting the weight back on i started having some abdominal and bowel area pains and I'm curious as to if these pains could have been caused by the saline which i know is just salt water leaking into my abdomen and possible irritating the outer linings of some of my other organs. We ran about $10000 dollars worth of testing trying to find out what was causing the pain and never found anything conclusive. any info on this would be appreciated thanks.

I have no idea about the tubing cracking haven't heard of this before.

The saline however would not cause any problems. Saline is used because it is the same composition as many of the fluids in our bodies such as tears. It is completely harmless. Saline is routinely used in first aid for cleaning wounds because it is so safe.

I'm really sorry you're having such difficulty!

As the PP said, saline is likely not the issue. The saline used in medical procedures is 0.9% normal saline, and has the same composition as our bodies' fluids.