StomaPhyx and revisions in general

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• Most stomaphyx patients did NOT lose much weight (about 20 additional lbs).
• Most stomaphyx patients complain about a lot of pain
• Both the stomaphyx and Rose procedures last only a year or so before the staples or tacks pull out
• The Rose procedure is like the Stomaphyx but the pleats are stapled in rather than tacked

Bottom line: the only revisions which give you a lot of weight loss, do it by making you very sick so that you cannot eat. Most folks would rather have the weight gain than be slimmer and sick.

More Details - Stomaphyx and Rose procedures

The ASBMS admitted that the reason they do the stomaphyx and rose procedures is because a goodly number of gastric bypass patients regain all or most of their weight (one study found 34 percent of patients who started with a BMI of over 50 regained a lot of weight after a few years). (REF: Annals of Surgery. 244(5):734-740, November 2006. Christou, Nicolas V. MD, PhD; Look, Didier MD; MacLean, Lloyd D. MD, PhD)

Revisions are major surgery and generally only give you a 30 lb weight loss.

Most surgical sites DO emphasize that you need to diet and exercise with WLS just like Weight Watchers or any other tool, plus you need to keep up your frequent bloodwork check and supplement a LOT.

"Success with weight loss surgery is 10 percent the surgery and 90 percent the patient"
--- Dr Terry Simpson, WLS surgeon

The stomaphyx and Rose procedures are serious surgery but because they are done through the mouth and have no incision, they are called "non invasive".   That just means there is no incision with these surgeries.

The stomaphyx and the Rose procedure are similar.  In both of them, the surgeon sticks a surgical instrument down your throat through your esophagus and into your pouch. Then he makes a bunch of pleats in your pouch, fastening them with either pins (similar to those pictured below - remember the buttoneer?) or sutures (stitches).  He can make from 30 to 50 pleats.

You can see the stomaphyx in action in the picture below.

In the couple of years the Stomaphyx and Rose Procedures have been out, problems have been seen.  Those who have had it describe having a lot of pain and upset stomach without a lot of additional weight loss.

Additionally, they have found that often, neither the stomaphyx nor the Rose last more than a year probably because the tissue they are pleating is very soft and the sutures or pins can pull out.

What they don't tell us but what is a no brainer is that these procedures can perforate the pouch and that might be serious in terms of leaking stomach acid to your abdomen or worse.

REVISIONS FOR GASTRIC BYPASS:

Gastric bypass doesn't work for many people in the long run as far as keeping much weight off.

Carnie Wilson, Al Roker and Roseanne Barr are three gastric bypass patients who have gained a bunch of weight back despite working very hard to keep it off.

That's because what they don't tell you, is after a gastric bypass you have to go on a very low calorie diet and many people cannot live well on that.  Also many people don't have much energy if they are not absorbing vitamins.  Finally when it's hard to eat the healthy foods, many people will eat the foods that go down easily most of which are fattening.

The average revision usually doesn't cause more than a 20-30 lb weight loss and can be very risky.

Unless the person gets very sick and cannot eat.  And that's not worth having risky surgery.  As one surgeon put it "fat and healthy beats slim and ill any day"

NO APPETITE?

The reason people are not hungry after their gastric bypasses is because there is a lot of healing to do inside you and also because it's harder to eat (you might get food stuck etc). 

But after a while things DO heal and your appetite comes back just as bad as it was before your surgery. And if you do not eat a very low calorie diet, your weight will come back.

After a revision, you might lose your appetite for a few weeks or so but after that your appetite will be right back, worse than it was.

What doctors generally advise since the success rate with any type of revision is so miserable and the risks are very high, is to join a group diet plan like Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig. The bypass becomes a tool to even out the field a bit but I won't kid you, it's still a lot of work.

If you have regained some weight that is actually a good sign that your body has adapted to the surgical changes... surgeons expect in a healthy bypass patient that they will regain 50 percent of what they originally lost so the surgeons do list those who regain as much as 50 percent of what they lost as a success. (although they don't say that at seminars because people really aren't interested in health anyway).

The healthiest bypass patients I know are NOT those who kept the weight off (only a small percentage) but those who DID have the rebound gain...