Gastric Sleeve Surgery
Sleeve gastrectomy is a restrictive surgery that permanently reduces the size of the stomach by about 85 percent.
Typically this surgery is used for patients that can't undergo regular restrictive or malabsorptive surgery due to health concerns. Which means people with medical problems like anemia, Crohn’s disease, osteoporosis, extensive prior surgeries and other complex medical conditions
How it works: The larger rounded part of the stomach is cut away, leaving a long cylindrical portion (sleeve).
Gastric Sleeve sugeris is the only gastric surgery in which part of the stomach is taken out o the body.
Advantages of Gastric Sleeve...
- Avoids problems like anemia and vitamin deficiency that are associated with the bypass style surgeries.
- Major portion of stomach that produces the hunger hormones is gone. Yay!
- Good surgery for those with high BMI
- Good alternative for those who are not good candidates for other forms of gastric surgery.
Disadvantages of Gastric Sleeve...
- The biggest benefit of this surgery is the reduction in stomach size thus limiting the amount of food the stomach will hold. All the food you do eat though is processed so your body gets all the calories you take in. This means some people don't lose as much weight with this method.
- A strict diet should be adhered to following surgery or weight loss may be limited.
- Sometimes follow-up surgeries to further reduce the size of the stomach are required to allow weight loss in high bmi patients.
Risks...
- Considered experimental in US, which means insurance typically will not cover the cost, which is also a disadvantage for many.
- The smaller portion of the stomach can stretch bringing weight loss to a halt.
- Long term diet must be followed for best results.
More info about other types of weight loss surgery