Gastric Staple

Question
I had my stomach stapled in April 15, 1982, with a weight of 242.  While I was recovering from the surgery, my boyfriend asked me to marry him and on December 4 of that year, I weighted 137. My weight stayed around 150-160 during the next 20 years, inching up until now I'm back at the original weight.  At the age of 56, would it be possible to have the procedure re-done or corrected?

Answer
Hi Lynn,

Based on the year you had your surgery you most likely had an older procedure called a Vertical Banded Gastroplasty. This was one of the earlier forms of bariatric surgery and is no longer performed (at least very rarely). Part of the reason this surgery has fallen out of favor for new procedures like gastric bypass, gastric banding, or sleeve gastrectomy, is that many patients regained much or all of their weight - so you are NOT alone. Also, because of this, most of the surgeons now practicing bariatric surgery - and there are many more now - can revise this surgery to one of the new procedures with good success.

Revisional surgery is usually trickier that the first surgery, so you do want to find someone who does a lot of revisions to talk to. But the good news is that you have options that can be very successful.

I hope that helps!

Best of luck to you.

In Health,

Dr. Jacques

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