1. < Bariatric Surgery & Weight Loss
Mentor

Bariatric revision surgery, have you had or considering?

Posted by Laurie, Volunteer Mentor @roch, Apr 13 6:40am

Hi, I am mentor for Mayo Connect and have notice a few comments in other discussions about bariatric revision surgery.

Revisional bariatric surgery is the generic term that refers to follow-up surgical procedures performed in patients who previously had any type of bariatric (weight-loss) surgery. It is one option if you’ve regained a significant amount of your excess body weight or you have experienced complications from your original procedure.

I have not had, but for others who have had revisional surgery or are considering, here is a place to discuss or ask questions.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Bariatric Surgery & Weight Loss Support Group.

Moderator
Lisa Lucier, Moderator | @lisalucier | 6 days ago

Hi, @roch - Thanks for starting this discussion on bariatric revision surgery for those who have gone through it or are considering it.

I'm tagging a few members who have talked about weight loss-related revision surgery or contemplating revision surgery, or even that they are not considering revision surgery: @mcordeiro @projfan @aunt. @grandmar @dlc1953 @shrinkerbell @wr61 @mom2five @nova1976 @nrosa0311 @missstephyl @sandytoes14 also may have some thoughts. Hoping you will share your experiences with revision surgery due to weight regain or complications from your weight loss surgery, your thoughts as you consider revision surgery or just your insights on revision surgery.

REPLY
grandmaR | @grandmar | 6 days ago

I thought about revision surgery, but I didn't have it done.
I lost. 90 lbs. from the surgery. I gained back about 10. I have gone up and down those pounds. I never went over. My husband kept a watchful eye on me.
I lost my husband 3 years ago. I could only get down comfort foods. I gained 30 lbs. over the 10.
I did not know what to do about the gain. I briefly thought about revision but decided against it. I opted for shots instead of the surgery. I've gotten back down to my post surgery weight plus an additional 8 lbs. Now, I am nearly 100 lbs down including surgery. It is my intention to go down another 7 to 10 lbs.

REPLY
projfan | @projfan | 6 days ago

I, too, pursued the new GLP-1 RAs after I put back on almost half of the weight I had lost due to the surgery, which took about a decade.

I suppose I think of revision surgery as something to do if an original surgery fails, for various definitions of fail. In my case, I did not consider the original surgery a failure -- the weight regain traced to other problems. (Although, to be fair, part of it was a mishandling of post-surgical dumping, which left me with some bad habits.)

I have more recently contemplated a knee replacement, and approached it in a more knowledgeable way, digging more deeply into side effects and success statistics. In fact, I specifically went for a second opinion with a surgeon who specializes in revision surgery.

So that would be my first suggestion: look for a surgeon who has done a lot of revision surgery, which might mean a long wait for an initial consultation, since these people are not thick on the ground. My second would be to clearly understand what is driving you to contemplate revision surgery -- what "success" looks like to you. What, exactly, do you regret about the first surgical outcome that you are trying to fix? My third would be to poke hard into the extent to which the outcomes might be worse instead of better a second (or third) time around. And last but not necessarily least, make sure you explore the question of insurance coverage for revision surgery -- I have no idea what the circumstances are under which an insurance company would pay for this.

REPLY
1 reply
mcordeiro | @mcordeiro | 5 days ago
In reply to @projfan "I, too, pursued the new GLP-1 RAs after I put back on almost half of the..." + (show)
@projfan

I, too, pursued the new GLP-1 RAs after I put back on almost half of the weight I had lost due to the surgery, which took about a decade.

I suppose I think of revision surgery as something to do if an original surgery fails, for various definitions of fail. In my case, I did not consider the original surgery a failure -- the weight regain traced to other problems. (Although, to be fair, part of it was a mishandling of post-surgical dumping, which left me with some bad habits.)

I have more recently contemplated a knee replacement, and approached it in a more knowledgeable way, digging more deeply into side effects and success statistics. In fact, I specifically went for a second opinion with a surgeon who specializes in revision surgery.

So that would be my first suggestion: look for a surgeon who has done a lot of revision surgery, which might mean a long wait for an initial consultation, since these people are not thick on the ground. My second would be to clearly understand what is driving you to contemplate revision surgery -- what "success" looks like to you. What, exactly, do you regret about the first surgical outcome that you are trying to fix? My third would be to poke hard into the extent to which the outcomes might be worse instead of better a second (or third) time around. And last but not necessarily least, make sure you explore the question of insurance coverage for revision surgery -- I have no idea what the circumstances are under which an insurance company would pay for this.

Jump to this post

All good thoughts projfan.

REPLY
Please sign in or register to post a reply.