I was just a Dr. Pleatman's website (he's in Michigan) and he states the following:

With a large number of people undergoing LapBand placement, there is also a significant number of patients (up to 25%) who have not been successful in losing weight with the Band. I have now begun performing laparoscopic Removal of the LapBand, with conversion to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass on these patients. For further information on this procedure, email me or contact the office.

First time I've seen that statistic.

Is it a stat or a sales pitch?????

I saw a statistic that said 25% have problems with the band but not that they just flat out didn't lose. Interesting. Let us know if you hear anymore about this, okay?

I know someone in real life who had her band inserted 18 months ago and has lost 4kg to date. She just doesnt want to face the life changes she knows she must. She has had no fills. She eats the wrong foods, she doesnt exercise and she eats when she isnt hungry and then eats beyond feeling satisfied.

You've got to be realistic, there are good banding candidates and then there are those that have more likelihood of failing. If you're truly a binge eater for example, probably no amount of physical restriction is going to quell that urge, you'll just probably make yourself very sick instead. If you have bulimia a band is unlikely in and of itself to fix that, if you simply cannot keep away from the wrong foods, you're not going to have great success. None of that means the band has malfunctioned, its just it takes the band AND you to make it work.

I did some really honest thinking about this and when I realised just how much work I was going to have to do, I changed my mind about the band. I thought "if I can do that at all, I can do it without a band". But I've come round, I know the band will give me extra strength to tackle it.

I've read entirely more positive statistics than that too so really as long as you're rock solid in your own determination and goals it's not relevant to you personally.

I was just a Dr. Pleatman's website (he's in Michigan) and he states the following:

With a large number of people undergoing LapBand placement, there is also a significant number of patients (up to 25%) who have not been successful in losing weight with the Band. I have now begun performing laparoscopic Removal of the LapBand, with conversion to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass on these patients. For further information on this procedure, email me or contact the office.

First time I've seen that statistic.

Pleatman is a respected band surgeon. He's just facing the facts earlier than some. (In MY neighborhood, the "expert" just did he FIRST band removal.)

I saw a statistic that said 25% have problems with the band but not that they just flat out didn't lose. Interesting. Let us know if you hear anymore about this, okay?

It's on the Inamed website...

www.lapband.com

Go to the part on risks.

I know the 25% failure rate is daunting-but that is 75% success! What other weight loss effort can boast that? I still think that the success or failure is more determined by the human factor than anything to do with the band. If course there are complications, but those complications are still a small per centage of the reasons for failure. I have been on this site reading exhaustively for the past few months, and I've yet to read a post that says the instructions for diet AND exercise were followed to the letter and no weight was lost!

I read that statistic too, but wasn't AT ALL daunted by it. I don't care what 25% of people do, or what 75% of people do, or whatever. All I was interested in knowing is how the band works, what its effects are, and whether its action can help ME lose weight and keep it off. It does require participation on the part of the patient, serious effort and a certain amount of luck. But no other weight loss regimen I have ever encountered promised ME the effect I needed--to get full faster, and to stop eating sooner.

If someone needs a different kind of help to lose weight then clearly, the band may not be right for that person. It doesn't surprise me at all that up to 25% or even many more people who get banded subsequently decide it's not what they needed. That's a screening issue more than anything else. I think we're all responsible for screening ourselves as candidates for this surgery, and if we turn out to be wrong that doesn't in any way mean that the band is to blame.

...and that 25 percent probably includes people who might have lost a little weight, not goal weight, because of slippage, erosion or other complications... and some complications are a direct result of "user behavior."

Elizabeth

Banded 8/28/03

-49

Unfilled & Holding Steady

OK, so every Lap-Band surgeon, in every city, at every hospital and clinic are reporting their patient’s results to one central database? (rhetorical sarcasm)

25% is an impressive number, but the question is 25% of what group? After-all, there may be a very compelling reason why 25% of a particular group of patients are not successful.

I am not yet banded but being worked up. I've very interested in this DS surgery that you had. It isn't as dangerout as gastric bypass, but has excellent results I'm told. Tell me, how do you feel; can you try to eat most anything or do you have to stay on liquids for a couple weeks; overall would this have been your first choice. I have heard of people that have done wonderfully on it although I understand all but 1/4 of the stomach is removed. It can't expand, and there aren't a lot of problems. Are there any you have noticed Sue. Do you feel as well as you did, or better after the banding. You could especially help me out as I'm no spring chicken, and I have to admit the band seems to take a lot of work, whereas this doesn't seem to have the constant follow-ups for fills and unfills. Would you do it again and are you comfortable and keeping food down. Is it clearing up the esophageal problem you had.

Thanks for taking the time to answer. I'm still trying to make a decision. You are the only one that has had this, so you are the person most qualified to answer about how you feel. I'm no youngster and wonder if this isn't the way to go.

Dody, actually this surgery is MORE dangerous than the RnY. But a good deal of that risk is--IMHO--because surgeons have traditionally "saved" the DS for the super MO...and any sugery performed mostly on super MO patients is going to have a higher mortality rate. But it DOES have a 99% cure rate for Type II Diabetes. And I'll be 59 in a few weeks.

You can learn about it by visiting:

(my surgeon) www.dssurgery.com

http://duodenalswitch.com/

http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/DS/

Good luck.

Geezer Sue, sorry but Diabetes is not cured by DS or any other ptocedure. If you have good weight loss, you can go into diabetic remission and stay there for a very long time - possibly forever, if you maintain your weight - but you always will be diabetic asnd have to be careful of several things - food, exercise, infections, more.

Diabetes goes into remission at exactly the same rate with DS as it does wioth bypass or banding. This should have no bearing on which procedure you choose. However, diabetics have a much higher surgical complication rate because of their obesity and blood sugar, so the safest procedure with the shortest operation time is a very wise choice. In my book, that is the Band. Both bypass and DS are very major surgeries, and both also have a high percentage of need for further operations to correct problems- so , again, diabetics are at higher risk.

I would not consider Pleatman a respected lap band surgeon based on how poorly he has helped his paying lap band patients lose the weight they sought his help with. This shows a lack of education about the entire process, dynamics, psychology and such. Taking out a TOOL that could STILL be utilized successfully with proper teaching, coaching, counseling and support .... to then do a procedure of surgically altering your insides ..... WHEN ALL TYPES OF GASTRIC BYPASS have a much worse long-term "success rate" than that 25%.

Lap Band surgeons are increasingly approached by all types of bypass/RNY patients who are over 2 years out who are seeking to be banded because the gut has adapted and is absorbing more and restriction has been lost.

The MOST important variable (after a proper program) in whether or not Bandsters are successful over the long term achieving good weight loss along with achieving better physical health and conditioning is ONGOING GOOD EDUCATION & SUPPORT on how to become a successful Bandster.

If good fill programs, education and support is available, patients still always have the CHOICE to

1) not go back for fill adjustments

2) learn to "eat around the band"

Some fail to deal with all the psychological hurdle we all face in learning how to replace food with other non-food activities which give the person the same satisfying "rewards" that comfort food once did. Some are, on the hand, having to deal with negative inner and outer dialogues that make them feel that they do not deserve to be slender and healthy.

And sometimes, we have those close to us that overtly or subtly work to sabatoge our progress.

Sometimes we need to separate from certain people or other situations, and/or get the help to become strong enough in self to no longer be influenced by the dark forces.

The Band is not magic. It cannot make me do anything I do not want to do. It is a tool that HELPS me achieve what I want to do. With my help, my band can help me become healthy, let me live to see my grandchildren grow up and my children reach retirement. It is already making my life better. It has already increased my self esteem and sense of self worth.

2 addendums ---

add this word

"The MOST important variable (after a proper FILL program) in whether or not Bandsters are successful"

and

I meant to say more clearly that some patients fail to ever get a fill ... some get too tight, but don't go in for an unfill ... and some get frustrated with a protracted expensive fill process (or are never taught what CAN be achieved) and simply "give up".

Theresa

Dr. Katkhouda is a pioneer in laparoscopic bariatric surgery in the United States. He is Professor of Surgery and Director of the Department of Surgery's Laparoscopy Program with the University of Southern California's Bariatric Surgery Program.

Dr. Katkhouda agrees with his colleagues that obesity treatment does not end when the patient leaves the hospital.

"These patients have a radical change in their lives," Katkhouda observes. "Without food for comfort, depression sets in. Support groups and nutritional counseling are key."

Copyright © USC Bariatric Surgery Program

1510 San Pablo Street, Suite 514

Los Angeles, CA 90033

Phone: (323) 442-6219 Fax: (323) 442-6280

When I went to see my surgeon's presentation on the lap band, he told the group that the US is the only country still doing gastric bypass surgeries. Other countries have discontinued this extreme form of weight loss surgery because of an alarming fatality rate (usually due to leaks).

Dr. Cahn (Boise, Idaho) also stated that none of the surgeries he does, even the most risky, have a fatality rate as high as the bypass surgery. He also showed the group the results of studies done by various doctors around the country which documented that while bypass patients may loose weight more quickly in the early months, there is clear evidence that over a two year period the lap band patients lose the same amount of weight, -and- they keep it off. Many bypass patients tend to regain the weight after a few years.

The group of medical professionals who have screened and helped prepare me for this drastic change in my life have all made it very clear that for real success I must begin making healthier choices in my life (diet and exercise). I have always been willing to do this on my own, but my weakness lies in the quantity of food I eat. So, for me the choice is clear.

I will be banded in 8 days and I'm fully prepared to make the necessary lifestyle changes to ensure my success. And to me success -is- being healthy and active and happy. The band is only one third of the equation to my success, the other two thirds being exercise and healthy foods. Afterall, why would I put myself through a $25,000 surgery and expect to be able to live the same way that got me in this mess in the first place? Like others have said in this thread, there are those that will find a way around the band and won't see the same success as others. I wouldn't attribute the 25% failure rate to the band. I would attribute the failure to the people who thought of their band as a device meant to deprive them from food and found a way to defeat it.