About the Gastric Sleeve

The Gastric Sleeve surgery is a permanent surgery that involves removing approximately 80-85% of the stomach leaving a small pouch that resembles the shape of a banana (approximately 4 oz). The procedure works by restricting the patient’s ability to eat as much food, thus reducing the amount of calories consumed. It also decreases the gastric hormone Ghrelin in the body. Ghrelin is a hormone that stimulates appetite and promotes fat storage.

Following the surgery patients feel less hunger and feel full quicker while eating less. Paired with the proper diet and exercise, patients can lose up to 50-60% of their excess body weight. Losing this weight can mean significantly decreasing your risk for comorbidities that are associated with obesity or being overweight such as hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, or sleep apnea. In patients who have already been diagnosed with any of the above comorbidities we see significant improvement in their medical condition often reducing or eliminating medications.

Short term studies have shown that the Gastric Sleeve is just as effective as a Roux-en-Y bypass in terms of weight loss and improvement or even remission in diabetes.

Benefits

• Restricts the amount of food that can be eaten
• Induces rapid and significant weight loss
• Requires no foreign objects to be placed in the body or rerouting of digestive system
• Involves a short hospital stay of 1-2 nights
• Lowest long term complication rates

Possible Complications

The complication rates for the gastric sleeve fall between those of the adjustable band and the Roux-en-Y procedure. Below are some of the most common complications with the Gastric Sleeve procedure:

• Leak at the staple line
• Infection
• Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)
• Narrowing cause by scar tissue
• Nausea/Vomiting
• Vitamin Deficiency