Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy
Sleeve gastrectomy, also called a vertical sleeve gastrectomy, is a laparoscopic surgery procedure involving the removal of approximately 70% of the stomach, leaving a slender stomach “sleeve.” This new stomach has a total capacity of just three to five ounces, which means patients feel full or satisfied after eating only two to four ounces of food. This procedure permanently reduces the size of the stomach, limiting the amount of food you can eat and helping you to feel full faster, and longer. Furthermore, sleeve gastrectomy is proven to reduce the appetite-stimulating hormone Grehlin. Less appetite combined with a smaller stomach makes it even easier to eat less food and lose weight.
The laparoscopic vertical sleeve gastrectomy has several advantages over gastric bypass, including:
- The normal flow of food through the GI tract is not altered, so the risk of nutritional deficiencies is greatly reduced.
- Removing the outer portion of the stomach results in the reduction of the hunger hormone, Ghrelin, which significantly reduces the desire to eat.
- According to published medical data, weight loss with the laparoscopic vertical sleeve gastrectomy can be 60 to 70 percent of excess weight at two years.
- Research also shows between 60 to 70 percent of laparoscopic vertical sleeve gastrectomy patients maintain their weight loss six years following surgery.
- No long-term risk of gastric ulcers and internal hernias with the sleeve, yet those risks remain with gastric bypass.