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(Note: Dr. Grossbard was banded by Dr. Ariel Ortiz in 2002. It took him 11 months to go from a BMI of 44 to a BMI of 25. Dr. Ortiz proctored him in the Lap Band procedure. His practice is based in Zephyrhills, Florida.)
I was 50 years old and morbidly obese. At 5 feet 5 inches short (vertically challenged when you are obese), I weighed 265 pounds. I tried to lose weight so many times. I've lost 50 pounds at least ten times in the last ten years. Do they have a discount for the baker's dozen with Weight Watchers? I looked to the Internet for some of the answers. The Internet leads to many sites that are informative; however, many sites are filled with nonsense and misinformation. In fact, the worst part of the Internet resources that obese people are confronted with is disinformation.
Once the decision to have surgery is made by the patient the next question is: what type of surgery? Stay in the United States or do I go abroad? If I go outside of the U.S., do I go to Mexico, Australia, or Europe? All of these questions went through my mind, as I am sure they have gone through most patients' minds. But what about the primary question, will it be bypass or lapband? The bypass procedure is well documented in the literature for over twenty-five years. Its efficacy is without question even by the most diehard lapband surgeons. We patients are all able to understand what the mortality and morbidity figures for procedures mean. The problem is what do we know about the individual surgeons? I for one, have always heard bariatric surgeons state that their own mortality rates are well below 0.5%. However, when groups such as SAGES and the ASBS regularly state that the real mortality figures are much higher, who does the patient believe?
Patients do come to the conclusion that the adjustable bands are a safer procedure than a bypass. It really does not take a large amount of intuition for most to reach this conclusion. Where do I get my lapband done?
The primary reason today for Americans to go to Mexico is for a particular surgeon with much larger experience and numbers of cases. We are starting to see larger and larger numbers of patients that go out of the US because they want the lapband and their BMI is less than the requisite 35 for operation in the US. Also, patients below the age of eighteen are starting to make their appearance in other countries because of the FDA rules.
The lapband is a wonderfully simple tool, or aid, in weight reduction. I was an obese surgeon. My BMI was 44. I now have a BMI of 25. I had a lapband one year ago. I reached my goal weight after 10 months. I needed to lose over 100 pounds of weight now I personally perform lapband surgery.
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