do you need seperate surgery; 1st band removed and later the sleeve?

[janna13 0]

I am wondering how many people had the band removed first to be followed up lasted by the sleeve? I just spoke to Dr Alveres office and they now do it in tow procedures. That adds to the cost, recovery time, time off work, travel expense etc BUT if it is a good thing to do then I need to consider it.

I have had my band for over 10 years now so if anyone is going to have scar tissue I am guessing it will be me.

What happens with other surgeons, if they open you up and see a lot of scar tissue do they just move forward or do they stop? I m looking for someone with a lot of revision experience. I was planning to go to Dr Aceves but that is not possible. Has anyone go to any of the docsthat Dr. Aceves worked with? I would love to get feedback on anyone who has had a good or bad revision experience. Do they actually open you up and then say nope its not going to work!

[CowgirlJane 14,261]

I had the band 10 years and the surgeon gave me a choice. They believed at the time that separate surgeries reduced some of the complication risk but could not show me a published study so I felt it was more anecdotal back in 2011 when I was revised. Band removal included scrapping away scar tissue.

When the surgeon did my sleeve he told me he was able to do a good standard sleeve. ..which isn't always the case with revisions. I have been very successful post revision and I suppose the surgical part (size and shape of sleeve) is a big part of that.

I have not checked recently if there are studies on this. Have you gone to medline?

[papoose 48]

I had my band removed in May. I am having my sleeve done on August 28th. Mr. Dr. said that he likes to give your stomach time to heal in between. I actually was scheduled for July 9th and felt that was too quick. And I wanted to enjoy the summer. I am not sure about the costs. My insurance company is paying for everything. They also paid for my lapband surgery 3 years ago. Good luck to you.

[janna13 0]

Thanks for the info. I am guessing that both of you had it done close to home. I will need to take several days off to go to Mexico twice and also am paying for it myself. Convenince and cost are issues but of course health needs to be high on my list as well. I am wondering what percentage of folks have it done in two steps and so will keep looking for more info. I was not aware of the med site so will look into that. thank you.

[Ronman74 1]

I had the Band to Sleeve done in the same surgery. I found there was some more pain than normal and developed a Fluid pocket that drained from my lowest incision for 6 weeks. My surgeon told me that my port was deep in the muscle and had to be dug out which caused alot of damage. everything seems to be ok now. im a liitle over 6 weeks post op.