Hi all,

Just read where Barbara278 got sleeved on Monday - yay Barbara!!!!! - I'm right behind you! Anyway, she mentioned that they gave her a spinal?! Really??? This is the first I've heard of a spinal for pain relief with VSG, am I missing something? I'd prefer NOT to have that done and will mention it to Aceves unless you guys can tell me a darn good reason or reasons to do it. Don't want no-one messing with my spine...! Same reason I passed during childbirth. Would much rather take a pill, crushed or whatever. Thoughts PLEEEZE...?! :thumbup:

Carol

Continuous spinal anesthesia has been studied and found effective for about ten years. See:

Continuous spinal anesthesia/analgesia for periope... [Obes Surg. 2000] - PubMed result

Also:

" A recent abstract (133) looked at patient-controlled

thoracic epidural analgesia after gastric bypass sur-

gery and found that it provided adequate postopera-

tive pain control with few side effects and no serious

complications. Most of the patients were able to start

oral intake on the second postoperative day and were

discharged home by the fourth postoperative day.

Another study on thoracic epidural analgesia (134)

found distinct advantages over morphine patient-

controlled analgesia (PCA) in providing a superior

quality of analgesia and shortening the duration of

postoperative ileus. Continuous spinal analgesia has

been used for postoperative analgesia after open VBG

with demonstrated safety, efficacy, and a small inci-

dence of morbidity (116)."

source: According to the National Institutes of Health,

Dr Aceves uses this, and I was so glad to have it...I had immediate pain control, no side effects.

Count me in the happy to have this bunch! I felt so darn good.

Cajun: Has Dr. Aceves had any "intestinal" leaks? Not staple line leaks. A small hole in the upper intestine caused by the co2 gas used to fill stomach during surgery. I have heard of 3 of these by other Dr.s. Have not heard of any from Dr. Aceves. I am just wondering how common an occurance this is? Do all Dr.s have these types of leaks? They result in major hospitalization time to clean out the infections. I would like the info so I can honestly and clearly reccomend this surgery to friends and people who ask me. You seem very "in the know" about the medical side of WLS. I did not know about spinal use for Sleeve surgery, until your post.

Thanks for the info.

Carolyn,

I have never heard of Dr Aceves having any intestinal leaks or other leaks.