Has anyone had the omnipaque fill? Does it restrict more than the saline?:party:

I want to see more results, I'm wondering if I have a leak. I was told I lost some saline since my last fill on the 1-3.

confused

Omnipaque is a contrast medium which is very sticky and tends to clog tubes up.. What kind of doctor is putting contrast into a port? I understand if you have a leak it will show up by leaking contrast out of your port, but I think the contrast will gunk up your band. Hope this is helpful. I work in radiology and have a lot of experience with Omnipaque.

Lots of docs use Omnipaque for fills.

They will choose to use it if they believe a patient may have a tiny leak or a very slow leak in order to keep more in the band for longer. Quite often I've read posts where a patient's doc chooses to use it to keep the fill around in the band longer than saline.

Also as you mentioned, since it is radiopaque you can potentially find a leak easier.

Here's some links to many threads about it (and it's spelled many different ways by folks, so it's hard to research here):

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f13/omnipaq-vs-saline-50181/

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f13/unexplicable-saline-loss-35077/

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f17/anybody-feel-like-just-not-working-them-52687/

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f13/omnipaque-what-44159/

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f78/losing-fills-42550/

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f91/lost-restriction-41535/

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f13/anybody-heard-about-other-fill-solution-40201/

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f78/please-read-leak-omnipaque-35480/

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f13/thick-saline-solution-used-fills-33533/

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f13/fills-omni-pak-16478/

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f13/frustrated-leaking-port-9997/

It worked really well when I had it. One time I did get a fill with it and about 6 weeks later I had to get a slight unfill because additional saline came into the band by itself. I'm not sure if it is because of this solution or not, but it did happen. It does work well though.

I have Omnipaque in my band and my doctor is one of the leading lapband surgeons in the country (has been involved since the first FDA trials). The band was initially filled with saline, according to protocol but by the time i went in for my 2nd fill I had lost 0.4cc of fluid. Dr. Spivak regularly fills with omnipaque to avoid this issue and suggested I do the same. I have not had ANY fill "disappear" since we started using it.