Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy
Vertical sleeve gastrectomy, also known as vertical sleeve gastrectomy has been employed by bariatric surgeons as a preferred surgical intervention for severely obese clients. Traditionally, this procedure is a precursor to the reduction of the level of hormones that stimulates food craving. These two steps, when completed, ensure a significant reduction in weight.
For severely obese patients with a BMI of more than 60, traditional gastric bypass surgery like the roux-en-y, poses a sky-high level of risks. Knowing the danger, gastric sleeve is employed as this procedure can be done readily through a laparoscope and with remarkably less risk. When sufficient weight is lost, a second procedure is done which is a classical gastric bypass surgery.
Recently though, viewpoint on gastric sleeve surgery has evolved making it an individual intervention. It was found to be effective enough that it does not require follow-up operations to potentiate its effects further. Desired weight level can be attained with sleeve surgery alone.
Patients who are candidates for a lap-band surgery are often worried because a foreign body will be implanted into their abdomen. With sleeve gastrectomy, there will be no implantation of any sort of foreign object into any part of the body which makes it a very attractive alternative. Long-term side effects like intestinal obstruction, protein and vitamin deficiency, and anemia which are expected in lap-band will no longer be a problem with gastric sleeve since it is only the stomach that is being resected. Besides that, it no longer needs an adjustment or filling after the surgery thus, lesser follow-up visits which will be very convenient and clients would be able to go back to their normal life in no time.
However, chances that complications can arise are ever present in all surgeries. It’s just a matter of identifying and avoiding the things that contribute to the development of these complications which your surgeon will tell you during the pre-operative consultations. The most common complications are bleeding and gastric leaking but surgical techniques are developed to prevent these tendencies.
There are several medical conditions that contraindicate traditional surgical remedies for obesity. Problems like Crohn’s disease, systemic lupus erythematus (SLE), and anemia are just a few of this long line of conditions. With vertical sleeve surgery, this would mean a chance to eliminate obesity from the precipitating factors that contribute to the exacerbation of disease conditions and complications of obesity itself.
Gastric sleeve is an irreversible procedure which involves vertical resection from the upper part of the stomach, called fundus, down to about two inches from the pylorus, the area where the stomach and small intestine meet. To prevent bleeding and leakage, the very first step in this procedure is securing hemostasis and stapling the seams bilaterally through the area where the cut will be made. When the first step is done, resection will follow. Sutures are made along the area of incision to reinforce the staples previously placed, the resected part will be taken out and the wound will be closed. However, today the
Gastric sleeve is not a malabsorption procedure. Rather, it is solely a restrictive method and yields weight loss by scheming how much food you can take in. Because this surgery is just a restrictive means, weight loss comes at a slower rate compared to that of a gastric bypass surgery. Although results come slower, complications present in procedures like those of bypass surgery are eliminated making gastric sleeve still a better choice.
As of now, studies conducted with gastric sleeve being a stand-alone method didn’t provide a long-term data as it hasn’t been too long since the utilization of this technique. However, studies have established the rate at which weight loss is expected. For clients with high BMI (50-60), half of their excess weight can be shed off in the first year after surgery. Clients with lower BMI (30-40), can expect a loss of over two-thirds of their excess pounds.
In the context of weight loss surgery, gastric sleeve is the median of gastric band and gastric bypass. Therefore, this method can be a very good choice for patients who, in any way, could not undergo a gastric bypass which could be the key to losing weight and modify their health status and lifestyle in a larger sense.
Gastric surgeons emphasize that no obesity surgery is an ultimate cure. It’s simply an instrument to assist clients lessen food and calorie intake. The operated stomach can enlarge again and the weight previously lost can be taken back. When this happens, the sleeve can be done again, but this call for another operation.
Due to the simplicity of the procedure, vertical sleeve gastrectomy is frequently used as a standby to the Roux en-Y procedure which is still the most widely employed gastric bypass technique. Even though the gastric sleeve method may be a very attractive choice for weight reduction, it still best to seek advice from a medical professional for other options may it be an invasive or non surgical means depending on what is best for your health.
