Question:
Has anyone ever had an intusussception or telescoping of the intestine post-op?

I had my surgery 5 years ago and recently awoke with SEVERE abodminal pain. Within hours I was taking demerol and throwing up blood. Doctors took 15 hour to figure out it was an intusussception or telescoping of the small intestine onto itself. Surgery was the only fix and they removed 1ft of small intestine. Research in medical journals showed only 2 other cases of this, both in Gastric Bypass patients, both after 5 years. If anyone has has this problem, please let me know. I am working with a surgeon to identify if this is a possible risk factor to GB surgery. In all 3 cases, including mine, the intusussception was not at the astenosis or connection point but very close. No lead point was ever identified. If this has happened to you, please let me know!    — Peter S. (posted on April 11, 2002)

April 11, 2002
Peter: Ouch! Sorry that you had to go through that. I don't doubt that some GB patients have suffered from this but I know it is a condition that is not EXCLUSIVE to GB patients. I'm not sure what causes it but I've read of other people getting this (even a common rotovirus vaccine was pulled from the market for infants because there was a correlation, albeit slight, between the virus and intessuption). I know that they profiled intessuption in an adult male in a rather recent issue of DISCOVER magazine... so it does happen to people who have not had GB in particular... I do think it is relatively rare in general, though. All the best, (lap bpd/ds January 25, 2001: preop: 307 lbs/bmi 45 now: 182 lbs/bmi 26),
   — Teresa N.