Monday, February 04, 2008

Lap banding in Denver

...if I were going to have a weight loss operation...there's no doubt I'd have the lap band. Why? Cheaper, safer, faster, doable as an outpatient procedure, quicker recovery, equal weight loss in the long run.
---Sid Schwab, MD, from his Surgeonsblog


During laparoscopic gastric banding, an inflatable silicone band is places around the upper portion of the stomach. This creates a pouch above the band just beneath the point at which the esophagus enters the stomach. After the first few bites of a very small meal, this little sack of stomach is full, overweight eaters feel satisfied, and they begin to lose weight.

Doctors down under recently found in a small series that morbidly obese patients with diabetes who underwent a lap band procedure for weight loss lost significantly more weight than a control group who followed a diet and exercise plan. And 2 years post-op, 22 of 30 in the lap banded band had their type 2 diabetes go into remission compared with 4 of 30 in the control group.

And if I were going to have weight loss surgery in Denver, I think I'd sign on for banding with Dr. Matthew Metz. This surgeon is not only a genuinely nice and personable fellow, he was also a bariatic surgery fellow at the Cleveland Clinic. He's a bariatric surgery nerd (that's what you want in a specialist), fully trained in all the latest surgeries and completely ready to repair and revise out of date bypasses that no longer work.

Check out Coloradobariatric.com.

1 comment:

Mauigirl said...

Interesting. A friend of mine was saying she's actually considering doing this. Perhaps it is a good idea.

Me, I probably don't qualify (I'm overweight but probably not enough). I'm stuck with the diet and exercise and I hate both of them!