What Is A Sleeve Gastrectomy? - Dr. Gonzalez (VIDEO)

Listen, as Dr. Gonzalez describes a sleeve gastrectomy.

Dr. Gonzalez:
The sleeve gastrectomy is an operation where we remove the grand majority of the stomach, leaving a thin banana-shaped sleeve of stomach. The operation was intended to be a first step of a two-step procedure.

Initially, it was created for patients who were too large to undergo one procedure in one stage. And so we would remove the grand majority of the stomach, leaving a small tubular stomach about the size of a thin banana, and then allow the patients to lose a certain amount of weight and bring them back to the operating room in a years’ time and convert the operation to a permanent operation, which would be maybe a gastric bypass or duodenal switch.

But, what has happened is that the operation has really been modified and has transitioned into a single-stage procedure. So, many programs like us are offering it as a single-stage procedure where the patient can have one operation and it would be the only operation the patient has.

There are some concerns with that. Number one, we don’t have any long-term data. We don’t know what this operation is going to do in 10 years, as opposed to the gastric bypass, which has a 40-year experience, and the bands have 40 years of experience. The sleeves are, experiences is under five years.

In addition to that, there’s a possibility that the patient will regain some weight and may need a second operation. So that, the patient has to be informed of that and be prepared for that possibility in the future.

About Dr. Gonzalez, M.D.:
Anthony Gonzalez, M.D., is a general and bariatric surgeon at the Baptist Hospital of Miami and South Miami Hospital. He has been practicing medicine for more than 10 years and focuses his interest on bariatric surgery and laparoscopic surgery.

Visit Dr. Gonzalez at Baptist Health South Florida