I'm not too sure what to think about what a co-worker told me. Where I work the are over 300 employees. The insurance company held a workshop for WLS with a nurse that gave the information on the different types of surgeries. I was confused by what she was told by the nurse. That the Mini Gastric Bypass procedure is the same as a VSG????? I'm a little bit upset that a medical professional (Nurse) would say that. Now correct me if I'm wrong, the two procedures are not the same and shouldn't be considered that they are. I felt as if the employees that attended that workshop walked away so misinformed. I know that the insurance company will and does not cover nor does it acknowledge MGB surgery. Maybe the nurse was not a Bariatric Nurse. But that co-worker is thinking that the two procedures are one in the same. I just wish I would've went with my nice 8x10 picture of my sleeve to show it isn't anything like a bypass. I just hope the ones considering surgery do research their choice of WLS. So that they can make a more informative decision and not take what they were told at face value.

Deb

MGB is nothing like VSG. They don't remove any of the stomach and they make a pouch and re-route your intestines. There's no intestinal re-routing with VSG. With MGB many experience dumping.

MGB isn't practised by many surgeons at all and I'm very dubious about the few that do. There's plenty of info on youtube about MGB but it's all publicity. I've not found any posts by patients themselves. I suspect there's some sort of NDA on them as there's absolutely nothing out there that I can find.

Hi Tijuana,

Thats the point exactly. Not sure why that procedure was even brought up. I am so sure that the insurance company has no idea that was even discussed. Just pissed that my fellow co-workers were sadly mis-informed.

Deb

I wonder if the nurse worked for an MGB surgeon and somehow thought it'd entice people to get MGB (it's stupid whatever her reason for saying this, but I can't think of a sane reason why someone would say MGB=VSG).

Also MGB is a pain insurance-wise. With the surgeon I looked into you have to pay him and then claim back the money from your insurance.

If people are interested they have to do their own checking, it's pretty easy to find out the differences between VSG and MGB and the most minimal research would reveal this.