Gastric bypass after right colectomy

Question
Last summer I had appendecial cancer and my ascending colon was removed.  I am now considering gastric bypass surgery and would like to know if my history of the  right colectomy would be a hinderance to gastric bypass surgery.  I have spoken briefly to two bariatric surgeons about this.  One said there would be no problem at all.  The other said he wouldn't know until I was on the operating table, and if not possible he would do the sleeve or band.  I only want the bypass because of its more pronounced impact on diabetes. So which surgeon is correct?  
Thank you.

Answer
Dee,
First of all, I agree that gastric bypass is the best choice if you suffer from diabetes.  While it is true that the prior colon surgery may have left behind some scar tissue that may interfere with the successful completion of the planned gastric bypass, I think it is worth a bit of extra work to get the planned operation done. Right colon surgery *usually* does not cause enough scar tissue to seriously interfere with the gastric bypass and I might be a tad concerned about a surgeon who seems anxious to change to the sleeve.

Personally, I have discussed the possibility of a change with many patients but in practical reality have only needed to change to sleeve one time when gastric bypass was the originally planned operation.

You may want to ask your potential surgeon how many times (or, what percentage) of the time they have 'needed' to change from the planned operation to the backup procedure. I would probably be concerned if the occurrence of changed plans is more than 10%.

Best of luck in your weight loss journey!

Dr JP

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