12 October 2010

Back to Band Business

So this is my second post of the day and by far more band relevant.
Over at Jen is Gonna Lose It she posted about a little rumor about the Realize band being recalled.
Ok.. I am on it Jen .. cause compliance is my thing and I jumped on the FDA website to validate it as a hoax.

But then (as you can tell) my mind started to wonder [do I have ADD.. who knows] and look into what FDA had posted on the Realize Band.

And Voila.. lots of good stuff in their (Endo) device application for FDA approval.
So as I was reading through their literature.. I came across a few morsels of info to share.
(Full Document is here)

The doc says that a 9cc fill is equivalent to 1.8 teaspoon of fluid.

One bit of interesting info was the preparation for band adjustments.
Here is what it states..

Preparing for an adjustment: You will need to have an empty stomach each time you have
a band adjustment. For this reason, you should not eat any soft or solid food for at least two hours before an adjustment.

I don't generally eat before an adjustment only because I usually have an 8:00 am appointment.. but just in case any of you were wondering..

Ok, the next piece of info I sought out was .. am I  on track with clinical expectations for weight loss.

So again, this link helped me validate that I am doing A OK (remember me complaining about being a slow loser)
On page 25 of the above hyperlinked document .. it indicates that the clinical trials reported at the 12 month post surgery that 224 (number of patients) had lost 40% of the excess weight loss, with the mean amount being 50 pounds with a BMI of 36.

Ok.. so lets break this down. 
What is % Excess Weight Loss
here is an excerpt that walks you through how to calculate..

When we conducted the clinical study, the FDA asked us to follow patient weight loss using a method called percent of excess weight loss (% EWL). This method takes actual weight loss and divides by ideal weight loss to get a percentage.

For example, suppose a woman is5'8" and weighs 300 pounds. At 5'8", her ideal weight is 154 pounds. So, her ideal weight loss is 300 minus 154 = 146 pounds. Now, suppose that she has lost 50 pounds since her gastric banding surgery. Her % EWL is 50/146 = 34 percent. If she loses all 146 pounds, then her % EWL is 100 percent. Your ideal weight is based on your height, and this chart can be found at http://www.realizeband.com/.

So I am doing fine, 50 lbs down with a % EWL is 55% with a BMI of  32.. I can live with that ..
What's more .. the clinical study really follwed their subjects for three years..so I am still early in my success cylce.
 
Alright.. gotta get back to work.

9 comments:

  1. Great info! That's for posting!

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  2. Bad news: you made me do math.
    Good news: I'm at 83%! That totally makes my day! Thanks for posting!

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  3. I love your posts, they are always so completely informative!!

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  4. Great info! Thanks for posting. Although I'm a little unhappy with the 'stats' for what 'average' weight loss is with a band in the first year.

    Averages are just that, averages. So they take into account the one or two people who get the band but NEVER EVER get a fill. Or people who get the band and then live on protein shakes for a year and lose more than anyone else.

    what I would like to see is the average weight loss for people who (at least mostly) WORK their band; i.e. get fills.

    I would imagine that the 'average' for those people would be much higher than 40% of excess weight (or 50-60% which my doctor spouts). THus, why I get frustrated with measly losses of 1 pound per week. KWIM?

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  5. I wonder if the stats are similar for lapbands? I don't have a realize band. No matter, it is great information. *Maria*

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  6. Great info!!!! I didn't realize that cc's = such a tiny amount actually in there. I mean, it make sense as the band is small but just never thought about it. Sounds like you're right on track with your weight loss. "Slow" losers need to make sure they read the info!

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  7. Barb, I love that you're such a data geek. The Hubs is too. Between the two of you, I'll never have to look anything up again!!

    PS Maybe I missed it, but did you in fact confirm that the talk of realize recall was a hoax or misunderstanding?

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  8. Great post! Thanks for the data.

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  9. Thank u so much for all this info!!! It was a great reminder AND some new info!

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