Does all doctors use the valtrac???

Hello all, curious over here wanting to know doesnt all doctors use the valtrac for the ds surgery and if so why are some more lenient on food issues than others, my doc says that its no bigger than a dime size and that I can only eat mush for 4 weeks till the valtrac dissolves Im stunned to as why can some eat real food right out of surgery? thanks , curious george over here May

I had to go look it up. I've never heard of that before, but that doesn't mean much. I just assumed they stitched things together and that was that. I'll be interested in what others have to say! Jeanie in MO T-43 Days

I so completely did NOT understand this question, LOL! I ran a Google on 'valtrac' and discovered it's a biodegradable ring used in forming an anastomosis, but my surgeon never mentioned it. I was told to eat pureed foods for two weeks, or anything small enough to pass through a drinking straw. Perhaps some doctors just don't use the Valtrac-Bar Ring, and perhaps others that DO use it believe it will degrade faster than others do. But then---one advantage the DS has over other forms of WLS is the still-fully-functional stomach, which still churns and further breaks down food before releasing it into the intestines. I'd think that pretty much anything the pylorus allows to pass would be smaller than a dime, anyway...

No, they don't. Some still do the anastamosis themselves. I had no valtrac and no staples. I could also eat anything I could tolerate from the beginning.

Mine didn't mention it and I was allowed to eat "normal" food after my swollow test. I just had to chew it well and eat slowly. Robin G 10/26/04