Why Is Gastric Sleeve the Most Popular Bariatric Procedure?
A look at why the Gastric Sleeve has overtaken the Gastric Bypass as the most popular procedure in the world.
When you’re ready to go with weight loss surgery, you’ll need to select which operations are ideal for your lifestyle, weight loss goal, and overall health. Obesity can be treated by a variety of surgical procedures. Gastric bypass, gastric sleeve (sleeve gastrectomy), are the most frequent bariatric surgical treatments.
Weight loss is achieved through bariatric surgical procedures that restrict the amount of food your stomach can hold, resulting in weight loss, or through a combination of gastric restriction and malabsorption, which removes or bypasses parts of your digestive tract, making it harder for your body to absorb calories. Most weight loss procedures are done with minimally invasive methods.
Is the gastric sleeve the most popular weight loss procedure?
In the United States, the gastric sleeve, often known as a sleeve gastrectomy, is the most common bariatric treatment. It was formerly just a (very effective) first component of a broader duodenal switch treatment. The sleeve’s unexpectedly good results propelled it into the ranks of major surgical treatments, with most insurances, including Medicare, covering it.
But why is the gastric sleeve so popular?
The sleeve’s popularity stems from its ease of use, which provides various advantages to both the surgeon and the patient. First, the surgeon removes around 80% of the existing stomach pouch along the greater curvature, leaving something that looks like a banana or a sleeve, hence the name.
The stomach is completely removed from the abdomen, including the fundus. Ghrelin, the hunger hormone, is produced in large quantities here. Not only do we limit the amount of food that can be consumed in one sitting by removing this section of the stomach, but it has been proven that most patients also have a reduction in hunger, as they self-control their calorie consumption.
Patients, on the other hand, prefer the gastric sleeve because it has fewer limits and considerations than a gastric bypass. For one thing, because the small intestine is not rerouted, there is a considerably lower risk of vitamin and mineral shortages. Patients can also consume a more normal, albeit restricted, diet following surgery without concerns of dumping syndrome.
Is the gastric sleeve for everyone?
Choosing to have bariatric surgery is a tough and very personal decision. As a result, if you’ve done the first step, congratulations; this is a major and significant step forward for your health and life in general. Choose the best technique for you and commit to managing your food intake and exercise routines from that point onwards to lose weight and stay healthy.
To help you decide which surgery is right for you, we recommend visiting our website for more information on the subject. You can also schedule an initial consultation with us at VIDA Bariatrics to learn more about the process.
The following are some of the benefits of gastric sleeve surgery:
- Causes rapid and considerable weight loss that is comparable to the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass in comparison studies. Patients who have a gastric sleeve will lose about 60% of their excess weight
- It helps you lose weight by limiting the amount of food you can eat at one time.
- Removes the region of your stomach that produces the hunger-stimulating hormone ghrelin, which reduces your appetite and increases satiety.
- An average excess weight loss of more than 50% is maintained.
- Because digestion is not rerouted and the intestines are left intact, digestion proceeds normally, and nutritional deficits are minor after surgery.
- Unlike gastric bypass surgery, dumping syndrome is unlikely to develop since your stomach exit, known as the pyloric valve, is intact.
- Doesn’t require the implantation of a gastric band into the body, nor does it require adjustments or fills as gastric bands do.
- Even on exceedingly obese patients, laparoscopic surgery is usually possible.
- Effective in treating or preventing obesity-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. For patients with certain health issues, it may also be safer than a combination of restrictive and malabsorptive weight loss surgery.
- If additional weight loss is required, the procedure is less invasive and can be escalated to bypass or duodenal switch
- There is a lower risk of ulcers than with gastric bypass surgery.
- This procedure requires a hospital stay of less than 24hrs.
- Often a less expensive weight loss procedure than gastric bypass.
Patient risk is reduced with minimally invasive bariatric surgery, such as possible long-term complications, malnourishment, intestinal obstruction, or internal hernias.
Several small abdominal incisions are used to execute a laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. The surgery takes around 30 to 40 minutes, since it’s an ambulatory procedure, patients are usually admitted for a hospital stay of less than 24 hours. Minimally invasive procedures reduce post-operative pain, blood loss, and scarring, lowering patient risk and speeding recovery.
Why is Gastric Sleeve Surgery the Best Bariatric Procedure?
Gastric sleeve bariatric surgery is becoming increasingly popular, and with good reason. The gastrointestinal anatomy is not rearranged in the gastric sleeve, commonly known as vertical sleeve gastrectomy or vertical gastrectomy. This fact mitigates many of the risks associated with other bariatric procedures such as the gastric bypass.
The operation is quite effective in treating morbid obesity. The procedure has an 80 percent success rate. Patients who get the surgery can expect long term weight loss of 60% of their excess body weight within a year.
Aside from the significant weight loss, one of the best advantages of surgery is that numerous comorbidities such as diabetes, sleep apnea, and cholesterol tend to improve quickly following surgery.
Patients also enjoy that, when compared to other procedures like gastric bypass, the gastric sleeve has fewer dietary issues, with similar metabolic changes as in a bypass. Patients may become ill because of these consequences if they consume sweets or processed carbs. There is also a lower danger of vitamin shortage following surgery, and no foreign objects are inserted into the body, as with gastric banding. Overall, a gastric sleeve enhances a patient’s quality of life by reducing hunger and the desire to overeat.
Bariatric surgery is an option to help you reduce weight and improve your health overall. If you’re considering bariatric surgery, including the gastric sleeve, give us a call to set up a consultation with us at VIDA Bariatrics.
DR. GABRIELA RODRIGUEZ RUIZ MD Ph.D. FACS
Dr. Gabriela Rodriguez specializes in General and Laparoscopic Bariatric Surgery. She brings to VIDA Wellness and Beauty a wealth of experience in bariatrics. Dr. Rodriguez is a founding associate of the Mexican College of General Surgeons. A world-class bariatric surgeon with double certification in the US and Mexico.