Woman reaches ‘last resort’ of weight loss

Since suffering a heart attack two years ago, Queenie Riley has been trying to lose weight.

By exercising and eating two meals a day plus a Slim Fast drink for breakfast, she managed to lose 51 pounds, getting down to 299. She lived with the fear of regaining the weight as she had after previous weight-loss attempts.

On Monday, Riley had an adjustable silicone band tightened around the top of her stomach, creating a small pouch apart from most of her stomach. Drs. Gregory L. Schroder and Matthew L. Brengman performed the procedure at Bon Secours St. Mary's Hospital using Realize Band-C, a new type of gastric band approved by the Food and Drug Administration last year.

The doctors did six procedures Monday morning using the band made by Ethicon Endo-Surgery. The other adjustable gastric band, Lap-Band by Allergen Inc., has been available in the U.S. since 2001.

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With gastric-band surgery, Riley can expect to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week. The surgery demands lifestyle changes -- patients at first can eat only a few ounces of food at a time and are warned to avoid certain foods. The band can be adjusted as Riley loses weight and as she reaches a maintenance weight. It also can be removed.

This year, an estimated 220,000 people in the United Stated will have weight-loss surgery, according to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. Gastric banding has gained in popularity and now makes up 44 percent of weight-loss surgeries, compared with 51 percent for gastric-bypass surgery, and other procedures for the remainder.

"The safety profile for the adjustable gastric band is better than gastric bypass in that there is a decreased number of complications and the severity of those complications are less," Brengman said.

Head-to-head research studies have compared gastric banding with gastric-bypass surgery, in which a small portion of the stomach is partitioned off and connected directly to the small intestine, thereby bypassing most of the stomach. In both procedures, the smaller stomach pouch means people who have had the procedure feel full after eating just a few mouthfuls.

One 2008 European study of people undergoing gastric-bypass surgery after getting poor results from gastric banding suggested a gastric-banding failure rate of 40 percent after five years.

A 2006 study published in the journal Surgical Endoscopy compared results of more than 500 patients who had weight-loss surgery at a Chicago surgery center. Of the patients, 120 had laparoscopic gastric bypass and 470 had laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding.

Laparoscopy is surgery in which the doctors insert the medical instruments through small incisions.

Operating time and hospital stays were shorter for gastric-banding patients. Complication rates were similar for both groups. Gastric-bypass patients lost weight quicker during the first year, but at three years, weight loss was comparable for the two groups.

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As with any abdominal surgery there are risks, including infection and bleeding.

Many patients who have the procedures find the weight loss rids them of hypertension, diabetes, joint pain and other obesity-related conditions. Typically patients have to be obese, with a body mass index of 40 or higher, to qualify for weight-loss surgery.

Riley, who lives in Emporia, had the procedure done laparoscopically. Insurance covered the surgery, and she has the support of her husband and children, ages 15 and 18. Her husband took her to the emergency room the day she had chest and leg pains that stopped her in her tracks.

"This is sort of like a last resort for me," Riley, 45, said of the surgery.

"I want to be around and be healthy for my children. Having a heart attack scared me a lot. I have to think about getting healthy. I am eating differently now, and it's important for me to get the weight off. I cannot put it off any longer."
Contact Tammie Smith at (804) 649-6572 or .