SubscribeHospital Suspends Surgery
Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston is suspending all surgeries performed laparascopically after a patient died following a gastric bypass surgery:
The procedure involves a small incision and a laparascope. Open gastric bypass differs in that it requires a larger incision."There was definitely a leak in the gastric pouch. A portion of that closure on the defunctionalized, redundant gastric pouch was not secure. The relationship of that finding to her death is still not understood," said Whittmore.
Dr. David Lautz performed the surgery Oct. 20. One possible scenario is that a staple gun misfired while the surgeon was reducing the size of the patient's stomach.
"There are a variety of different places where things could have gone awry, where the stapler may have malfunctioned, and there are a variety of different ways in which the stapler may have malfunctioned, so we are in communication with the manufacturers of the device, as well as the (Food and Drug Administration) and appropriate regulatory agencies in trying to help us all understand what actually occurred here," said Whittmore.
Brigham and Women's Hospital performs about 150 to 250 gastric bypass surgeries each year. To the hospital's knowledge, no one else has died as a result of the procedure at the hospital, but statewide eight people have died as a result of complications resulting from this particular surgery.
How dangerous is the surgery?
Surgical willpower is just plain nuts. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's not the surgery itself that causes people to lose weight, it's the fact they physically cannot eat food in any sort of reasonable quantity afterward. So why not try a psychological reversible bypass? Just eat small quantities of food. Pretend your stomach is smaller. Get hypnotized into thinking that. Jeez, people who get themselves cut open voluntarily are nuts. And if I see that Carnie Wilson commercial one more time, I'll gag. Bulimically.
ReplyAt your request, I'm correcting you. The surgery itself does indeed cause people to lose weight due to the malabsorption factor of the bypass, which causes fats and some additional nutrients to pass through a person's system undigested. There are several types of surgeries, of course, some that are purely restrictive which do only permit a person to only eat a small amount of food.
These types of surgeries have an incredibly small "success" rate, if you want to call it that, with barely a 50% loss of excess weight. It's the malabsorptive surgical procedures which have the high success rates, specifically the duodenal switch and to a lesser extent, the Roux En Y (the Carnie Special).
Since the restrictive surgeries have such a dramatically less success rate, clearly simply eating less is not the answer.
It's very easy to make snap judgements on something you likely don't understand. Take it from me, there's a lot more to it than just putting down the fork, dude.
If *I* see that Carnie Wilson commercial one more time, I'll join you in the gagfest, however.
ReplyI forgot to answer the question. The surgery isn't dangerous; leaks are dangerous. Performing this surgery laparascopally is dangerous, imho. You're dealing with morbidly obese people here who have a lot of tissue and other things that can potentially block a laparascope's view.
I'd be curious to see the statistics between complications between lap and open bariatric surgeries.
Replymy 19 year old son had gastric bypass surgery .
ReplyHe is doing great! We are so happy he did this. He looks so much better and so happy now. My son has tried everything to loose the weight. my son was a diabetic but since he had this surgery he has not had his insulin shots. I know he future looks alot better now. He plans to finish college.We are so pround of him .