Sorry to be so blunt about this question but after reading about people dying following other types of WLS, I'm now wondering how many people have died as a direct result of lapband surgery. My surgery is coming up soon and I'm starting to have doubts about the risks involved.

Is there any data from other countries besides the US?

None that I have heard of, and last I researched (about 4 months ago) there weren't any on record. One of the most colloquial places to get this info, morbid though it may be, is on OH. There is a memorial page, and it indicates the surgery the person had. (Disclaimer - because someone had the surgery and died doesn't mean they died because of their procedure. You do need to read the notes.) Some indicate the death was not surgery-related, some indicate it was. I know it's not a happy read, but I did go through it and look for lap-banders when I was making my decision. At the time I didn't see a single one.

As for data from other countries, I'm sure it's out there. Good luck finding it. Share when you do.

The nationwide death rate is 3 in 10,000 or less, which makes the Lap-Band a safer procedure than routine surgeries like hernia repair or gallbladder removal.

Its a minute risk, of course you can die from anything, but generally as pointed out in the info evening I went to, if a patient were to die from lapband surgery, it would require everyone involved in the care making ridiculous mistakes everywhere along the line - ie. the surgeon would have to leave an instrument in the patient, the patient would have to fail to notice pain or inflammation, the nursing staff would have to fail to respond to the patient, the surgeon would have to refuse to see the patient again, etc etc.

For some people though, the anaesthetic is more of a risk than for others.

I remember questioning my decision and it is a valid and important question.

I also would weigh it against the death rate from obesity related diseases. I felt that for me, this was the 'healthier' of the two options...

hugs and good luck with your decision...

Hi

I only know of one person who died after the operation in England.:cry Apparently she'd been rushed into hospital with a band slippage, she did not inform the hospital that she had a band and they examined her with a scope down the throat. This caused her stomach to rupture and she died.

LANA:D

Hope this helps

Lapband surgery itself is safer than many other types of surgeries.

The risk of the anaesthetic, inherent to all surgeries, is a greater risk, especially if the patient is in a high risk goup, such as obese patients, those with a heart problem etc.

The are things that anyone can do prior to surgery to reduce these general risks. For example, having a thorough pre-op testing program, being as open and honest about your health as you can with your surgeon / physician (i.e. mention anything about your health, even if not asked, let the medics test / decide whether or not it is important), and improve your general health in the weeks prior to surgery (e.g. improve diet / nutrician, take a daily walk / exercise, go to bed early etc).

Keep in mind... you're still not reading about deaths *because* of the lap-band, you're reading about deaths *related* to the lap-band. When I was researching, I couldn't find a *because* situation, where the band itself caused the death. I did find cases of people who died on the table (in which case it was anesthesia, or arrest, etc. -- not the band, and not the actual placement of the band). I also found cases of people who succumbed to the comorbidities they had the band to try and overcome (e.g. someone dying of obesity-related heart disease). But I did not find a single case of the band itself causing the death.

There was a woman several years ago that died after recieving the lapband. She ignored problems such as dehydration, and malnourishment. It wasn't because of the band, but because she ignored many warnings to get help. ~Mandy

pretty much we are looking at annicdotal evidence. We don't have any hard data that anyone has ever died from the band.

There was one lady in Detroit, MI several years ago, who died because she failed to seek medical care due to a severe slippage. She was a local counsel woman or politician of some sort and didn't want anyone to know she'd had WLS. Her slippage was so bad that her stomach was prolapsed and strangulated inside the band. There was another case just like this with a lady in Washington state (this person's problems went on much longer than the first). This was posted on Smartbandsters some time back.

Other deaths I recall included a man who had a heart attack on the OR table - no fault of the band itself.

I am not aware of any others, but of course, we don't have all the current data.

Still, the odds are so much less than the bypass.

There was one lady in Detroit, MI several years ago, who died because she failed to seek medical care due to a severe slippage. She was a local counsel woman or politician of some sort and didn't want anyone to know she'd had WLS. Her slippage was so bad that her stomach was prolapsed and strangulated inside the band. There was another case just like this with a lady in Washington state (this person's problems went on much longer than the first). This was posted on Smartbandsters some time back.

Other deaths I recall included a man who had a heart attack on the OR table - no fault of the band itself.

I am not aware of any others, but of course, we don't have all the current data.

Still, the odds are so much less than the bypass.

That isn't exactly what happened. Her name was Brenda Scott. This is the newspaper report...

<CENTER>Scott's family files $100 million suit

Detroit councilwoman died after surgery to aid weight loss

8/27/04</CENTER>

By David Shepardson / The Detroit News

DETROIT — The family of former Detroit City Councilwoman Brenda Scott is suing two hospitals and four doctors in her death.

The suit filed Thursday in Wayne Circuit Court seeks $100 million.

Scott, 47, died Sept. 2, 2002, in Detroit Receiving Hospital, three days after undergoing gastric surgery at Port Huron Hospital to lose weight.

Scott’s stomach apparently was perforated during the surgery, said Dr. I. Michael Litman, who filed a sworn affidavit on behalf of Scott’s family’s lawsuit.

The suit claims Port Huron Hospital misdiagnosed her pain symptoms and didn’t detect the hole that was “allowing gastric fluids to flow into her abdominal cavity, slowing killing her.”

In early 2002, Scott attended a seminar by Port Huron doctors promoting LAP-BAND surgery, which essentially puts a band at the top of the stomach to make patients feel full.

On Aug. 30, Scott underwent the surgery and was released the next day.

On Sept. 1, after the pain worsened, Scott went to the emergency room at Detroit Receiving Hospital. Early the next morning, an X-ray showed evidence of the perforation and significant Fluid levels with the abdominal cavity.

Geoffrey Fieger, the family’s lawyer, said doctors should have performed emergency surgery: “Her death was 100 percent preventable,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Detroit Receiving Hospital declined to comment.

Dr. Daniel Angeli, vice president of medical affairs at Port Huron Hospital, confirmed there was a post-death peer review of Scott’s case, but he declined to disclose the results.

Since March 2002, Port Huron Hospital has conducted about 800 of the surgeries, and those patients have lost more than 25,000 pounds.

“That’s like (the weight of) five Explorers,” Angeli said. “It has an extremely low risk, but no procedure is 100 percent safe.” At the time of her death, Scott — who was 5-foot 6 — weighed 361 pounds, according to the medical examiner.

So it was perforated. Thank you for hunting that up.

Now why do they have to go and put her height & weight into that? Flipping media.

1. There's one in the medical journal......hmmmm, can't exactly remember the circumstances...maybe surgical perforation? I'll check and let you know the reference.

2. Then the man in Boston who woke up during surgery and had a heart attack.

3. A woman in NY a couple of months ago had an asthma attack during surgery.

4. A woman in Texas about 7 months ago (she and her husband were both MDs). She needed and unfill but didn't get medical attaention and her electrolytes were off and she died. (shouldn't have happened)

Moral:

1. Make sure you have a skilled surgeon.

2. Make sure you have a GOOD anesthesiologist. (I'd drop dead if I woke up during surgery! How scary!)

3. Disclose all medical problems. Make sure you have asthma, apnea, all breathing problems and concerns under control.

4. If you can't drink/eat don't wait until you are dehydrated to get help.

Only one of these deaths are a direct result of the surgery, but the others occured because of the surgery or band.

These are the only ones I know of, but there could be others.

PS. I'm not banded yet. Waiting for a date.

Re: #1:

1: Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 2005 Sep;26(3):297-301. Links

LAP-banding obesity: a case of stomach perforation, peritonitis, and death.

We present a case of peritonitis and death due to the misplacement of a laparoscopic adjustable band inserted through, instead of around, the stomach. This represents the first case in the published literature where a LAP-BAND perforated the stomach, followed by peritonitis and death. The morbidly obese female patient with a history of hypertension and arthritis was 47 years old, 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighed 361 pounds, and had a body mass index of 58.3. She underwent a 2-hour, elective, LAP-band insertion operation to achieve weight loss; 27 hours after band insertion, following the conduction of all FDA-mandated Lap-Band postoperative protocol (including a radiologic Gastrogrografin swallow), the patient was discharged with "no evidence of esophageal stasis or obstruction." She remained out of hospital care and in her residence until she called for and was taken by an ambulance to an alternate, local hospital (57 hours after band insertion), when gastric perforation was confirmed via x-ray and CT scans. No open surgery was attempted to repair the damage, and cardiac arrest ensued 7 hours after admission to the second hospital. The patient was pronounced dead 64 hours after LAP-band insertion. This unique case is significant, given that there were no deaths of this kind reported in The LAP-BAND® Adjustable Gastric Banding System Summary of Safety and Effectiveness Data by the United States Center for Devices and Radiologic Health, of the food and Drug Administration, or in searches of the published literature.

PMID: 16121091 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Re #2:Panel urges standards for obesity surgery

By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff | August 5, 2004

Responding to a sixfold jump in the number of patients undergoing obesity surgery, a state public health panel yesterday recommended that Massachusetts hospitals and doctors adopt strict standards to reduce deaths and complications.

The report includes recommendations that hospitals and surgeons perform a high number of surgeries in order to stay in practice, which ultimately could force some smaller programs at community hospitals to close. Based on their review of medical studies, panel members said hospitals that do more than 100 surgeries a year, and surgeons who do 50 to 100 cases a year, have lower complication rates.

"This is going to send a clear message about what you need to have in your surgery program, and if you don't, you should rethink it," said Christine Ferguson, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, who herself had weight-loss surgery a year ago.

Ferguson, who up until now hadn't spoken publicly about her surgery, said that because of her experience, she made sure the panel developed information that patients could use in choosing a surgeon. Ferguson, 45, has lost 100 pounds -- halfway toward her goal -- since having "lap band" surgery, in which doctors tie a silicon band around the stomach to shrink its size.

"People should look at all the options, but they also need to know there's hope," she said. "They shouldn't withdraw from society."

The January death of Howard Reid, a 37-year-old computer technician and Harvard University security guard, shortly after obesity surgery triggered the expert panel. Six other deaths or serious complications related to obesity surgery in Massachusetts have been reported to public health officials since 1998.

But Ferguson said yesterday that all surgery is risky: Obesity surgery carries up to a 1 percent chance of death. The other impetus for forming the panel, she said, is the growing popularity of the surgery. Massachusetts doctors did 2,761 gastric bypass operations and other types of obesity surgeries last year, compared to the 402 cases they did in 1998.

The 17-member panel, including many surgeons and nurses, reviewed the quality of hospital bariatric surgery programs. Their detailed report includes guidelines for nearly every aspect of obesity surgery including exactly which patients should be allowed to undergo the procedure, to how to tailor anesthesia for obese patients, for whom surgery is especially risky.

One guideline recommends surgery only at hospitals that perform 100 or more cases annually. Only 14 of the state's 24 hospitals that do obesity surgery perform that many, said Dr. George Blackburn, vice chairman of the panel and a physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The panel also recommended that hospitals adopt strict standards for doctors before allowing them to perform obesity surgery.

For traditional weight-loss surgery, during which doctors make a long incision, hospitals should have an experienced surgeon monitor a new surgeon for 10 cases. The hospital should then review the next 15 cases of the new surgeon, to make sure standards are met, before granting full privileges to the surgeon.

Ferguson said the Department of Public Health would review the recommendations and consider whether to adopt actual regulations. But she said she is reluctant to do so, because medical practice changes so quickly. Instead, she expects education and peer pressure will force all hospitals and doctors to adopt the standards.

Patients also will vote with their feet, opting for surgery at hospitals that meet the "best practice" standards, she said, while insurers may pay for the surgery only at hospitals that follow the recommendations. The Public Health Department will post the recommendations on its website.

"I can't imagine anyone who's doing this surgery who wouldn't integrate these guidelines into their practice," said Nancy Ridley, an assistant commissioner of public health and head of the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety and Medical Error Reduction. "I expect every hospital will do this."

My husband got peritonitis from the lap band surgery. Bacteria (staph) entered through the incision sight . He was in excrutiating pain and complained many times and even had visits to doctor, They decided to assume it was his gall bladder. The infection burst and they had to rush him into surgery to clean out infection and remove band. Later that day fever and pain returned and he was back in OR to get pockets of infection they missed first time. It has been a week and I don't know when he is getting out of hospital. Hopefully he will recover fully as they expect but he still has fever and I'm not sure what's going on. He could very easily have died.