Opnions? http://www.clos.net/

It's exactly what I would expect to see between two competing businesses.

Coke is anti Pepsi. McDonald's is anti Burger King. I have to expect that a bypass business is going to try and make the band look as unattractive as possible.

That's what business do.

"MGB is $17,000 and the LapBand removal is $5,000"

$22,000? What a joke!

This is nothing but a big advertisement. Kinda reminds me of all those political ads on TV - everyone has to put the other guy down.

I looked at their Lap-Band failure link. Didn't impress me much. I knew going into this that it wasn't a magic bullet, and that some people have complications. Which is true of ALL WLS. We don't know if these people who haven't lost weight did their part. And if they will be successful with a new WLS.

My pet peeve is when someone wanting to sell me something tells me how horrible the compatition is.

And the webpage is poorly designed, IMHO. Too busy and poorly organized.

It's like comparing apples and oranges. The stastics he quoted about complications were based on the device used in Europe in the early 1990s. It is not the band used today and the procedure has been improved....but there's always a way to spin something any way one wants.

Shabby but very popular method of advertising.....trying to sell their procedure by making the other look bad. If the truth be known, the person who wrote in wouldn't have been throwing up if she had of been using her band properly....and,if this was caused by being too tight then she had the option of fixing that....but shabby advertising never really tells the truth.

Carol

That's the most badly-designed website I have ever seen. Horribly bright and bad on the eyes, small font and toooooooooooooooooooo crowded with too many things. Not to mention the content. YUCK.

It reminded me of a cheesey tabloid. I'd be afraid to go to a surgery center that advertises like used car salesmen. (no offense to any used car salesmen out there.:success1: )

At the hospital I work at the gastric bypass and lap band surgeons are selling 'their' surgery.

The gastric bypass surgeon would not consider doing surgery on a smaller person with a BMI under 40, he does significantly larger people. He's a great guy, and he absolutely is concerned about the health of his patients, and getting referrals 'in enough time' before their vessels have had too much damage with diabetes and hypertension. He is trying to make physicians understand how important earlier intervention is.

The lap band physicians will do weights that are less, and patients have BMI's less than 40. They like the fact that it is less invasive, flexible, doesn't make any large abdominal structure changes - it was the perfect option for me.

I personally think that both surgeries have their benefits. Each surgeon sells the benefits of theirs. But in my opinion - it is like apples and oranges.

I really hate any bad mouthing of procedures or scare tactics - I think each person should go to presentations and decide for themselves what is best for them - there is NO SUPERIOR SURGERY - you have to find what is BEST FOR YOU.

I've lost weight, and many people comment, I'm pretty tight lipped with my surgery - there is a lot of prejudice and judgement out there - and it really bugs me.

People comment that surgery isn't the right way, and you shouldn't do it, they can be really nasty about it - and it bugs the heck out of me. They don't know I've had it done. I usually defend it, not as someone whose had it done - but as someone whose in favor of people getting it done.

I feel bad about myself being a closet bandster, but I work in a fishbowl.

OK, my rant is over.

When I was researching WLS I looked into the so-called mini-GB. Dr Rutledge was the only one doing it then, and is still the guy in charge of the whole mini-GB movement. He owns all the mini-GB clinics. There was a lot of controversy about him and the procedure about 3 years ago. There must be a reason that only about 3 doctors in the whole world perform this surgery.

And I agree....his hard sell approach just turns me completely off.

From Wikipedia:

Loop Gastric Bypass

The first use of the gastric bypass, in 1967, used a loop of small bowel for re-construction. Although simpler to create, this approach allowed corrosive juices from the small bowel to enter the gastric pouch, sometimes causing severe inflammation and ulceration of either the stomach or the lower esophagus. It was soon abandoned by its originators, in favor of less troublesome techniques, but has recently been employed again by a few surgeons, as the "Mini-Gastric-Bypass", mainly to simplify the challenge of reconstruction, when performed laparoscopically. Although mini-gastric bypass has been asserted to have a low complication rate, there are now multiple reports in the medical literature of serious long-term complications with the technique, necessitating major revisional surgery.

I appreciate each of your comments. That is what I needed to read at this point in time.