Hello! I'm new to the forum and I had read this was a good one to join when looking for support outside of family so here I am . I was wondering how many incisions are normal when doing laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy? At first my sugeon told me 2-3 incisions but more recently I was told 4-5. So why the jump in the amount of incisions? I know I'm doing this for my health but as much as I hate to admit it, the idea of so many scars really is bothering me. I have some very large scars already (back surgery, C-section as well as a WHOLE LOT of stretch marks) and I'm only 29 yrs old. While I'm willing to do what I need to do for my health, I'd like to prevent more scarring if it's possible. I asked him about the SPIDER surgery and he said it's a gimmick and that there is no way to do that kind of surgery with a single incision. He obviously has a lot more experience than I do so I thought I would ask this forum...

How many incisions did you have?

How bad is the scarring?

Has anyone had a SPIDER procedure and if so how was your experience?

Thank you all for your time and thanks in advance for anyone willing to reply!

Thank you both for replying! It DOES make me feel much better to know that you have a hard time seeing them. Also, I am most likely going to need a tummy tuck after all is said and done so that was going to be ANOTHER scar I would have to look forward to in the future. Hopefully they can remove some of them by doing a tummy tuck, that would be awesome! If that's the case then I'm much less concerned with the scars. I don't ever plan to be scar-free but I would like to minimize if possible. Still wondering about the SPIDER procedure just out of curiosity though... Is it really a "gimmick"?

Not sure on this totally..but my Doctor offered me the option of doing a single incision through my belly button for $1500 cash.. My insurance is covering my sleeve on 5/10 however he explained to me that he would need to do between 6-7 incisions .. He said the one incision in the belly button is quick and less painful with no scaring. Maybe you can ask if your Doctor overs this

Thank you both for replying! It DOES make me feel much better to know that you have a hard time seeing them. Also, I am most likely going to need a tummy tuck after all is said and done so that was going to be ANOTHER scar I would have to look forward to in the future. Hopefully they can remove some of them by doing a tummy tuck, that would be awesome! If that's the case then I'm much less concerned with the scars. I don't ever plan to be scar-free but I would like to minimize if possible. Still wondering about the SPIDER procedure just out of curiosity though... Is it really a "gimmick"?

Not sure on this totally..but my Doctor offered me the option of doing a single incision through my belly button for $1500 cash.. My insurance is covering my sleeve on 5/10 however he explained to me that he would need to do between 6-7 incisions .. He said the one incision in the belly button is quick and less painful with no scaring. Maybe you can ask if your Doctor overs this

Yes, that is the surgery I asked him about. Apparently it's called SPIDER procedure, but he said sleeve is not possible with a single incision so I guess I'll just have to take his word for it since I really have no proof otherwise. He says it's a gimmick. I do worry though, that if it's NOT a gimmick then that would mean he is either a bit behind on the times OR he is lying to me. Most likely the former but that would worry me just as much as the latter since I would expect someone operating on people to keep up to date on things that could make surgery more comfortable and have a much shorter recovery time as well as less scarring in the end.