Gastric Sleeve Surgery is a surgical procedure for weightloss. It is a restrictive operation that makes your stomach smaller so that you will feel fuller more quickly and eat less food.
This Gastric Sleeve Surgery procedure involves the removal of more than half of your stomach. The reduction is performed surgically by removing a portion along the greater curvature of the stomach. After your surgery, only a vertical tube about the size of a banana is left.
The operation has become a popular choice for people looking for extreme weight loss options. This surgery should be considered as a tool for weight loss rather than a quick fix because the patient will need to eat a healthy diet and exercise following the surgery.
The gastric sleeve surgery is a simple medical procedure that removes parts of the stomach to lose weight. Not only will the surgery shrink your stomach and physically reduce the amount of food you can eat, but it will also change hormonal signals between the stomach, brain and the liver. In simple terms, your appetite and the need for food will be reduced. It is not cosmetic surgery where fat is removed. Only part of the stomach is removed.
History of gastric sleeve surgery
Almost all other major health insurance companies began to cover this procedure during the next two years. It is extremely difficult to get health insurance companies to approve new procedures, but gastric sleeve surgery was approved because there was evidence that the procedure brought about significant weight loss and the complication rates were low. Additionally, surgeons were already doing the procedure on patients who were covered by insurance. That was an accomplishment because surgery on obese people is riskier than surgery on people of normal size.
The gastric sleeve procedure was the first of two surgeries normally performed. Insurance companies paid for the first surgery and then paid for the second one a year or so later after weight was lost. However, it was discovered that the sleeve procedure was successful in getting people’s weight off without the second surgery being performed.
Sleeve patients lost as much weight over time as the gastric bypass patients did. The gastric sleeve procedure proved to be quicker, less complicated and safer than the gastric bypass procedure, and the surgeons quickly started to prefer performing the sleeve operations. Patients liked the results too because they didn’t experience hunger anymore. In fact, some of them had to remind themselves to eat!
How long does gastric sleeve surgery take?
Importance of Gastric Sleeve Less complicated than the other types of surgery Gastric bypass is a complex surgery and takes an average of 4 hours to perform. There is a shorter variation of gastric bypass surgery, but it’s considered very difficult. The duodenal switch surgery is the most complicated because it involves a lot of rearranging. Since it’s done in two parts, it can take up to three hours. Lap-band surgery is relatively short at one to two hours and isn’t complicated for experienced doctors, but the gastric sleeve surgery only takes an hour and is considered the least challenging.
Doesn’t trigger dumping syndrome When you get parts of your stomach removed, the dumping syndrome often results. It happens when sugar moves from your stomach to your small bowel too quickly. You will experience cramps, diarrhea, vomiting, dizziness, and other symptoms, 10-30 minutes after eating.
Dumping syndrome is especially common after eating meals high in sucrose or fructose. Gastric sleeve patients rarely get this, while it’s commonly associated with gastric bypass surgery. Results in significant weight loss Following gastric sleeve surgery, patients lose about 60-70% of excess weight in just a year. With exercise and proper eating, patients can lose even more weight in the coming years. Five years after surgery, on average, patients keep off over half of their extra weight. If you are diligent about diet, exercise, and doctor follow-ups, you can keep off all of it.
Can the Gastric Sleeve Surgery improve obesity-related diseases?
When patients are sure to follow-up with their doctors following surgery, it’s very common to see improvement in conditions like diabetes, hypertension, asthma, and more. Some even become cured. The benefits of maintaining a healthy weight cannot be overstated.
Less follow-up and risk of complications than other surgeries For many, the most significant benefit of the gastric sleeve is less need for regular check-ups and fewer complications. Both gastric bypass and duodenal switch surgeries reduce the body’s ability to absorb nutrients, so blood tests are required for the rest of your life to prevent malnutrition. Tests are still necessary following gastric sleeve, but the follow-up isn’t as intense because gastric sleeve surgery does not inhibit nutrition absorption.
What to expect after gastric sleeve surgery?
Have you been thinking about having the gastric sleeve weight loss surgery because you have tried to exercise and diet for what seems like forever and you still have a ton of weight that needs to come off?
You need to know what the benefits and risks are, what would make you a good candidate for this particular weight loss surgery, and what you are going to have to adhere to in order to keep the weight off.
Gastric sleeve surgery might just be the most reliable and safest option if you are 80 or more pounds overweight. It provides fast, significant and long-term weight loss. For this procedure, surgeons are going to remove about 75% of your stomach and then connect the different portions together to create a new stomach that looks like a banana or “sleeve”. You will be left with a small sack that is about a tenth of the size of your stomach used to be. This will help you feel full a lot faster than normal. You aren’t going to be able to eat the same amounts of food that you used to. This will help you lose weight.
What’s the difference between gastric bypass and gastric sleeve surgery?
The most popular weight loss surgery is the gastric sleeve surgery. Just in the US, it makes up more than 60% of the weight loss procedures that are performed. This has increased by more than 24% since 2011. During the last few years: • Gastric bypass decreased from 62% to 37%.
Gastric banding has gone down from 7.5% to 0.8%. With the gastric bypass surgery, a surgeon will create a pouch that skips the majority of your stomach and goes right into your intestine. With gastric sleeve surgery, no foreign objects are implanted (unlike the gastric band) and it doesn’t require the intestines to be arranged strangely. Many patients realize after a decent recovery that they can eat a variety of foods like fibrous vegetables and meat.
People who have a BMI of 40 or more are perfect candidates for gastric sleeve surgery. This means having a weight that is 100 pounds more than it should be. Some people might be too large to have gastric bypass surgery, so this is a better alternative.
Newer procedures are being done like the gastric balloon, Aspire Assist, and vBloc Therapy. Their numbers aren’t even close to those of the gastric sleeve surgery. Stomach stapling or sometimes called horizontal gastroplasty is a procedure that is so outdated it is no longer performed. Gastric sleeve is a much safer and better procedure.
Gastric sleeve surgery health benefits
There are many positives things about the gastric sleeve surgery that has helped it earn the place as being the most popular surgery:
- Weight loss is comparable to gastric bypass. Some even think it is better than the Lap-Band surgery, vBloc Therapy, and gastric balloon.
- Improvement in health problems is better than any other procedure except the duodenal switch.
- Less hunger – the vBloc Therapy, duodenal switch, and gastric sleeve are the only procedures that will make you not feel as hungry.
- Risks for gastric sleeve are shorter than with Lap-Band surgery, duodenal switch, and gastric bypass.
- No devices are left in the body. With the vBloc Therapy, gastric balloon, Lap-Band, and Aspire Assist there are devices put inside the body. These can cause a risk of problems with device issues. The risk is low for vBloc Therapy, Aspire Assist, and gastric balloon. There is a higher risk for Lap-Band surgery.
Gastric sleeve vs gastric bypass pros and cons
Let’s look at the differences between gastric bypass (GB), duodenal switch (DS), and gastric sleeve (GS) weight loss surgery:
- Gastric sleeve has comparable improvements in health problems related to obesity.
- Gastric sleeve has a faster recovery time.
- Complications are lower with GS.
- The problems with acquiring a vitamin deficiency are a lot lower with Gastric sleeve.
- There isn’t as much of a risk for dumping syndrome with Gastric sleeve compared to gastric bypass.
- Side effects such as vomiting, diarrhea, or nausea are not as likely with gastric sleeve. If it does happen, it is usually less severe than gastric bypass.
- Gastric sleeve doesn’t cost as much. The cost is similar if you have insurance that covers this type of procedure.
- If you are currently taking blood thinners, then gastric sleeve would be the better option as opposed to gastric bypass because it helps to lower the risk of developing marginal ulcers.
Gastric sleeve vs Lap-Band procedure pros and cons
Let’s compare gastric sleeve surgery (GS) to the Lap-Band procedure:
- The risk of developing GERD is lower with GS.
- The risk of pouch dilation, food trapping, and esophageal dilations is not as high with gastric sleeve surgery.
- With gastric sleeve, there is no need to worry about devicerelated issues such as Lap-Band erosion, port problems, or slippage.
- There is less of a risk of experienced long-term problems with gastric sleeve surgery than there is with Lap-Band.
- Not as many follow up visits to your doctor after gastric sleeve.
- gastric sleeve surgery doesn’t tend to be more expensive than the LapBand surgery. The cost will decrease if you have insurance that covers part of the cost.
- You should not experience any dumping syndrome with gastric sleeve. It has been experienced by about seven out of ten bypass patients. Many gastric sleeve patients see this as a good thing because it helps them to stay consistent with their diet.
The price for a gastric sleeve tends to be one of the lowest along with bypass, Lap-Band, and duodenal switch with insurance help. The vBloc Therapy and gastric balloon aren’t covered by insurance at this time. Since this surgery is irreversible, does it make it a bad thing? Not really.
The issues of vomiting, diarrhea, or nausea are all short term. Around one in five patients have experienced GERD but this will improve with time. This rate will drop after three years. Patient’s bodies seem to handle a gastric sleeve procedure better than bypass or Lap-Band. The gastric sleeve has a significantly lower risk rate when compared to these of the Lap-Band:
- Food trapping
- Pouch dilation
- Esophageal dilation
- Port problems because gastric sleeve doesn’t use any devices.
Gastric sleeve surgery cost in Dubai?
The Gastric sleeve surgery costs around 35,000.00 AED in Dubai.