What are the real risks of anethesia for a surgery like this? I know that it is actually a very short procedure, around 30 minutes or so? I have this irrational fear of having anethesia and not waking up from it. I also know that it is a rather common fear for people going into surgery. Being cut open, foreign object in my body, recovery.....those dont really worry me. I worry about the damn anethesia, lol! Does anyone actually have any info or statistics on the safety of being under anethesia for a surgery like this?

I was told 1 in 2000.

:]

I don't mean to scare you at all - but someone posted on here a few weeks ago about their dear friend who just went to get the lapband - and died from a heart attack while undergoing anesteisa - again - just wanted to be honest with what I know - I will try to find the link - it was very sad.

http://lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=10158&highlight=funeral

there it is - i found it

ok nevermind - I never went back and read the entire thread - as you can see I was the first one to post condolences and never checked back - apparetntly the entire thing was bullshit and someone has a vendetta against MX dr's. NO worries - disregard - I just went and read through the entire posts - feel free to do so - its all bullshit - no one died - sorry for my mistake as again I never read through the rest of the posts as I was the first one to post. go take a look if you want to feel better - it was someone playing a horrible prank.

if i knew how to delete posts I'd delete all of these from this thread as they hold no merit - sorry bout that.

Anesthesia CAN cause death in patients with weak hearts - but that is why you have to get and ekg and all that other pre-op testing. The docs have to certify that you are medically fit for the surgery.

Really - If your tests are all good, then you are good to go.

:]

If anaesthesia is really going to be a risk to you due to the condition you're in, you'll find you probably wouldnt be able to undergo surgery unless it was for an immediately life threatening condition. Anaesthesia today is really very safe and people dont just spontaneously die on the operating table.

Usually when they do its a long complicated surgery and is putting their bodies under incredible stress.

Even with gastric bypass as well as with the lapband, deaths that occur are more often a result of some complication of the operation, such as internal damage and bleeding, not from spontaenous death on the operating table for no particular reason.

Truly, the risk of being obese outweighs the risk of the anaesthetic.

Thanks for the reassurance. I did some checking myself and found that in barriatric surgery the risk of "serious complications OR death" is 1 in 250,000 (mind you, that is including complications such as aspiration or blood pressure spikes). Also the complications are the usually the result of some other underlying condition, not the anesthesia itself. There were no statistics I could find on lapband specifically, and I am sure that the duration of gastric bypass is where the above statistics come from. I actually feel much better now.

As for the hoax thread you were talking about CandySmooch, I didnt even check it out. I dont want unfounded fears. Why would someone even get a kick out of posting something like that? Thanks for telling me it wasnt true before I read it!

Anesthesia today has got to be very safe today, as opposed to years ago. I know that I had the surgery after I had a heart attack, quadruple by pass surgery, diabetes and heavy smoker for over thirty years. Talk about your high risk patients, kinda hard to beat my track record, and I swear I breezed through the whole thing. Was home in less than 24 hours, no pain meds were ever needed, no complications whatsoever. And to beat a dead horse into the ground, everyone is different, but I really believe this to be a very safe surgery. IMHO It's good that you're asking questions though, especially on a board that will get you a lot of responses. The more info you have the better off you will be. I think that's true for anyone considering elective surgery. I wish you the best of luck in both your research and your surgery, should you choose to have it done.

Cindy