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Good Morning. I Have A Question About Medical Grade Staples.
Question: Good morning. I have a question about medical grade staples. I had a gastric bypass in December of '17, the roue n Y procedure. My dietitian informed me in no uncertain terms that I was never to use caffeine. She stated further that the caffeine, coffee in my case, would attack the staples and over time cause the staples to disintegrate! I read an article by a bariatric surgeon stating that surgical staples would be, in time, covered over by the surrounding tissue. Which of these is correct?
Brief Answer:
Staples would be covered by fibrous tissue over time.
Detailed Answer:
Hello Mr Ottoson,
Welcome to Ask A Doctor service.
The surgical staples used for anastomosing the bowel loops will get buried by the surrounding tissue within no time at all, like 5 to 10 days.
Later stages of wound healing would result in fibrosis all around the staples. So essentially no part of the staple will be exposed to the contents of the stomach.
That said, coffee is not going to cause any corrosion of the staples, forget coffee, the stomach constantly secretes concentrated hydrochloric acid and initially the staples do come in contact with this acid, yet nothing happens, these staples do not get affected so easily.
And, to top it all off, even if these staples were to completely disintegrate after 10 days after surgery, nothing would actually happen, the surgical scar would have healed enough by then and would not need additional support by the staples.
I hope this clears your doubts.
Wishing you good health.
Bets regards
Staples would be covered by fibrous tissue over time.
Detailed Answer:
Hello Mr Ottoson,
Welcome to Ask A Doctor service.
The surgical staples used for anastomosing the bowel loops will get buried by the surrounding tissue within no time at all, like 5 to 10 days.
Later stages of wound healing would result in fibrosis all around the staples. So essentially no part of the staple will be exposed to the contents of the stomach.
That said, coffee is not going to cause any corrosion of the staples, forget coffee, the stomach constantly secretes concentrated hydrochloric acid and initially the staples do come in contact with this acid, yet nothing happens, these staples do not get affected so easily.
And, to top it all off, even if these staples were to completely disintegrate after 10 days after surgery, nothing would actually happen, the surgical scar would have healed enough by then and would not need additional support by the staples.
I hope this clears your doubts.
Wishing you good health.
Bets regards
Note: For further inquiries on surgery procedure and its risks or complications book an appointment now
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Yogesh D
Answered by
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