Failed Bariatric Surgery

Patients that have experienced procedures (open or by laparoscopy) with unexpected outcomes often come to our practice for consultation. The stagnation in the weight loss after the initial treatment, the new weight gain or the significant alteration of life quality and health of the patient might be considered as treatment failure.

Below we will show how some techniques might have failed outcomes.

Adjustable Gastric Band failure

Most frequent causes are: stop losing weight, gaining weight, band sliding movement, penetration, esophagus dilatation, intolerance to the procedure, or dependency of the doctor.

When the band has penetrated surgery must be performed in two steps. The first one is to remove the band (it can be done in a certain group of patients through high digestive endoscopy) and the second is to make a gastric bypass.

Procedure time is about two hours per patient (surgery is about one hour), failure rate is less than 1%, recovery time is not different from patients without prior interventions.

Laparoscopic Vertical Gastroplasty failure or uncutted by laparotomy

Technically speaking is a less complex procedure than gastric band conversion and often allows performing a gastric bypass with similar surgical times to the previous case and complication possibilities lower than 1%.

Gastric Bypass failure

Defined by weight loss failure, weight gain and quality of life deterioration. An endoscopic and radiologic imagery study must be performed in order to correct the unexpected result. A laparoscopic intervention is made, consisting in making a new proper gastric pouch, calibration of the gastrojejunal joint, setting bypass loops logitude and amendments of the residual stomach. The operation time is two hours, hospitalization is one day, complication rate is less than 1%, patient may travel day six after surgery.

In some cases patients nutritional state is altered without being related to the procedure, his metabolic state must be compensated before planning a surgery revision; this process is done with the help of an interdisciplinary team in a high-level hospital facility.