For Those Who Have Had A Gastric Sleeve Leak?

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

I am curious if the leak test most surgeons seem to do the day after the surgery actually finds leaks or if most leaks are actually found later based on patient symptoms?

[FishingNurse 1,210]

Good question! I think most leaks actually do occur in the few weeks following surgery. There was a girl in my WLS support group that developed a leak due to terrible wretching and vomitting post op. Her test the day after was fine.

[MeMeMEEE 206]

Mine was found by accident - they symptom I had was blamed on something else. My Dr doesn't do a leak test the day after. My leak actually showed up probably around 4-6 weeks when the swelling went down and it opened. I was diagnosed with it at about 3 months, that's the first time it showed.

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

My doc told me that it is believed that pretty much all leaks actually happen in the first 14 days, even if they are caught later.

What I was wondering is this - it seems like almost everybody does that leak test the day after surgery and it never catches leaks, perhaps because the swelling hasn't gone down. I was just curious if anybody on here that had a leak, actually found it in the one day post op leak test that so many surgeons perform before you are allowed to have anything by mouth..

[Lissa 2,631]

I didn't have a leak test until 8 days post-op, unless the surgeon did one in the operating room. Obviously, I came through with flying colors...or, no color, as the case may be.

I really tried to baby my sleeve as much as possible. The thought of more surgery really scares/scared me because I had surgery before and after to install/remove a filter. The filter caught two clots, so I'm grateful that my doc insisted on it, but I wasn't too thrilled at the time.