I moved from New York to Los Angeles and looking for a new bariatric surgeon in Los Angeles area. Anyone have a strong recommendation? I had lap band in New York (2012) and recently had to have it removed, but I am looking to revise to sleeve once my stomach heals. Love my NY doc, but I want to meet with some local surgeons in LA instead of flying back to New York. Thanks all for the input!

Your best shot at it would be Dr. Keshishian in Glendale. He is one of the handful of docs capable of doing the very complex RNY to DS revision, and while you don't need that level of revision, a good DS oriented surgeon is a good bet for a VSG as the DS is based upon the sleeve, so those docs have been doing sleeves much longer than most bariatric surgeons. When I had my VSG done 7-8 years ago, I went up to SF to have it done as there was no comparable level of experience in LA at the time (Dr. K was still mostly practicing in the Central Valley then.)

He will probably advocate that you revise to the DS, as that does generally provide better and more durable long term results, but the decision is yours. If your band failed mechanically rather than on weight loss or regain, and you otherwise lost and maintained well with it, then the VSG should do just as well for you, but without the mechanical issues. If, on the other hand, you did struggle to lose enough with the band, or regained with it, then the DS is well worth considering.

Thank you! I’ll look him up!

Cedars Sinai! hands down. They are #3 in the country for gastric surgeries. Dr Burch is amazing

Have you seen Dr Burch? Dr Chen at UCLA has been a total bastard that is way too long of a story to type out and even though I wake up choking on vomit from GERD he keeps pushing back bypass and recently had the balls to say I have Münchausen in my medical records but not to my face. I see Dr Burch Wednesday! I’m praying he can help me. Cedars is a horrible hospital but my GI doc and a LINX surgeon at UCLA both sing his praises.

My GI doc is at Cedars. I’m scheduled to see someone at UCLA next week to discuss revision.

Please, PLEASE stay away from Dr Chen. I used to call him the zen master and now he’s a nightmare. He had the nerve to write possible Münchausen syndrome (NOTHING to support it) in my medical records and now I have this black stain following me forever. He wants me to keep suffering with GERD. Had bravo and normal is something like under 15 and I’m 50-60 so I 100% have it. He says at least 6 more months. It’s been a year and a half of suffering. Meds stopped working.

Dr Burch 100%. You will be very happy.

Saw Burch today. I’d kiss that man on the face. He’s so wonderful I’m surprised he’s a surgeon. Drew pictures of bypass and handed it to me and I jokingly asked him to sign it so I could frame it and he did and even wrote 1/1 on it. The most personable surgeon I’ve ever met.

That’s great. I’m going to UCLA Tuesday for my revision consult.

On 02/28/2019 at 01:40, kah1213 said:

That’s great. I’m going to UCLA Tuesday for my revision consult.

Which surgeon did you see? Dr Chen is a nightmare. I’m actually filing a formal complaint with UCLA

If you have the option of Kaiser, they have a fantastic bariatric team.

Which surgeon did you see? Dr Chen is a nightmare. I’m actually filing a formal complaint with UCLA

Why, what happened? I am going to get my revision surgery by dr dutson, thank god my dr is not dr chen?

That’s great. I’m going to UCLA Tuesday for my revision consult.

Who did your revision surgery at ucla?

That’s great. I’m going to UCLA Tuesday for my revision consult.

Which Dr. at UCLA did your revision surgery?