People often try a lot of options to lose weight before resorting to weight loss surgery. A combination of diet and routine exercises is the safest option to lose weight. However, people who are morbidly obese are left with no other option but to choose a safe, proven, and long-term treatment for weight loss. Gastric sleeve surgery is one of the few options that control obesity through sustainable loss of body fat.
Besides treating obesity, these types of surgeries can treat other conditions like hypertension or high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, and other diseases. The benefit of these weight loss surgeries is to improve the overall quality of life.
Today, bariatric and metabolic surgeries are refined over the years and presented for treatment after extensive research. Small incisions are performed using minimally invasive techniques like robotic or laparoscopic surgery. These advanced treatments allow patients to experience lesser pain and develop fewer complications with a speedy recovery and shorter stay at the hospital. This surgery aims to alter the stomach and the intestines and treat obesity as well as associated diseases. The surgery is done to shorten or trim the stomach.
A minimally invasive surgery, gastric sleeve promotes portion control for life. It restricts food consumption and reduces caloric intake, improves satiety, and reduces hunger hormones too.
Patients choose Mexico for gastric sleeve surgery because the country offers less expensive packages compared to the United States and Canada.
Gastric sleeve bariatric surgery, also called sleeve gastrectomy, is one of the proven weight loss procedures. It is a type of restrictive surgery, which limits your portion size, or the amount you eat. The purpose of this procedure is to remove 75to 80 percent of the patient’s stomach. It is one of the most common bariatric procedures performed in Mexico.
Gastric sleeve surgery is performed in the following steps:
Patients stay inside the operation heater for an hour. However, during this procedure, intestines are neither bypassed nor removed. It takes approximately 2 to 2.5 hours for the complete procedure. Once completed, the patient is moved to the recovery room and kept for another one hour or more.
The small size of incisions typically heals easily and quickly. Because it is minimally invasive, the surgery also helps patients recover much faster than any other procedure involving a complete opening of the abdomen or larger incision.
Unless patients complain of any major complications, they can return home within 3 days post-surgery.
Gastric sleeve surgery works by reducing the size of the stomach and restricting food intake. However, it does not reduce nutrient absorption or bypass intestines. After the surgery, patients feel full quickly and stay fuller for long hours.
Sleeve gastrectomy also reduces appetite. Besides reducing stomach size, it also reduces hunger hormone production in the stomach, which contributes to rapid weight loss after the surgery.
Gastric sleeve is a relatively easier surgery that successfully delivered superior results in more than 90 percent of patients. By simply eliminating the capacity of the stomach, patients feel fuller much faster, thus limiting the caloric intake, while being satiated at the same time.
Gastric sleeve surgery also has a direct benefit. It reduced the production of ghrelin hormone that plays a key role in our hunger management. Typically, when hungry, or on an empty stomach, the human body secretes the ghrelin hormone into our bloodstream to cause hunger feelings. Once you start eating, the secretion diminishes, only to return after some time.
Studies reveal that when the stomach is removed, it leads to reduced production of ghrelin, thus causing less hunger in patients.
When gastric sleeve surgery was initiated for the first time, it was considered to be a restrictive part of biliopancreatic duodenal switch surgery. During the same time, the gastric sleeve procedure became the preliminary stage of the operation for obese patients undergoing duodenal switch surgery to reduce the risks.
In some cases, patients lost adequate weight after the first gastric sleeve operation and they did not have to undergo the planned duodenal switch surgery, which is the second stage. As a result, the results prompted weight loss surgeons to choose gastric sleeve procedure as a solo bariatric surgery. In 2000, the first solo gastric sleeve surgery was performed laparoscopically.
Over the decades, gastric sleeve surgery has become one of the most popular bariatric procedures worldwide. In America, Canada, and Mexico, over half of all bariatric procedures are performed annually as gastric sleeve surgeries.
On average, a patient can lose up to 70% of excess body weight after bariatric surgery.
The success rate of gastric sleeve surgery is almost 80% to 90%.
Studies and clinical trials suggest that gastric sleeve procedure improves many underlying health complications related to obesity, which includes:
Some studies indicate that up to 80% of patients dealing with diabetes type 2 can improve their condition after this surgery.
Likewise, gastric sleeve surgery can also increase the level of testosterone hormone naturally.
To know whether you are eligible for gastric sleeve surgery or not, you should consult the surgeon. Only a surgeon can guide you in the right direction. Meanwhile, if you want to check your candidacy in Mexico, follow this:
However, there is an exception too. Asian patients with type 2 diabetes, which is poorly controlled, and BMI lower than 27.5, may also be considered for gastric sleeve surgery.
The reason to consider this exception is that, when compared, Asians are prone to storing abdominal fat, as opposed to other peripheral body parts like hips, thighs, buttocks. Due to the accumulation of abdominal fat, they are also at a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases and insulin resistance, even at such a low BMI.
Some more contradictions to undergo a gastric sleeve procedure are:
It takes 40 to 70 minutes to complete the gastric sleeve surgery. After the surgery, patients are kept in the recovery room for an hour and then sent to their hospital bed. Patients without any major complaints, after the surgery, are discharged from the hospital within 2 to 3 days.
During their stay at the hospitals, patients are also encouraged to take a walk within 3 to 4 hours from the surgery. It prevents blood clots in the legs. Generally, pain is manageable post-surgery.
Once the effect of anesthesia starts reducing, it is usual to feel a little groggy with pain and nausea. The nurse in charge would give you pain-relieving drugs and medications to ease nausea.
Patients are closely monitored during their hospital stay to check for signs of complications like infection and bleeding.
A clear and liquid diet is given to patients the next morning after the surgery.
Doctors generally recommend all the following for patients to ensure speedy recovery:
It would take some time to get back to your normal life, as it was before the surgery. To make sure you reach there faster, some of these general guidelines may be helpful:
The majority of gastric sleeve surgery patients lose a lot of weight. However, the key here is to keep that weight off. Luckily, research reveals that by the fifth year from their surgery, most patients usually lose 60% of the excess weight they accumulated over the years.
Still, patients may need revision surgery, also called revision sleeve gastrectomy or covert to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery due to weight regain or insufficient loss of weight. Some patients also develop severe GERD because of the surgery. In such cases, revision surgery becomes necessary.
It is important to understand that any weight loss surgery is neither a quick fix nor permanent. Patients should meet their surgeon and consult a dietician strictly adhering to the routine of a healthy diet and light workout.
The routine should include the following:
Always remember that weight loss is associated with a lot of emotional issues. People often use eating as their coping mechanism. For those people, finding another way to deal with stress devoid of food could be challenging.
Find a healthier way to release your stress, like taking a break out with friends or exercising. Have clear and open communication with your family and friends, or a support group, for stress relief. If nothing seems to work, seek help from a psychologist or therapist who specializes in gastric sleeve surgery.
Although gastric sleeve surgery is considered to be a relatively safer procedure, there may be a few complications just like any major surgery.
Some common complications that may occur after the surgery include:
After a gastric sleeve procedure, patients can have some more complications too. Some other side effects related to the surgery are:
Making certain changes to your diet, exercise, and lifestyle habits is essential to lose weight and maintain it off even after a gastric sleeve procedure. If you eat excessively, have a poor diet, or do not exercise regularly, the weight may come back.
Diet plays a crucial role both before and after the surgery.
The pre-operative diet is important as it helps in reducing the size of the liver before the surgery. This also makes the surgery much easier for the surgeon.
Your surgeon shall also recommend the best-tailored diet for you after the surgery. Although the dietary changes may sound similar to that of any general diet guidelines, follow them.
Two weeks before the surgery, increase your protein intake, reduce carbohydrates, and cut out sugar completely from the diet.
Two days before the surgery, ingest clear liquids only, free from carbonation and caffeine. This continues for the first one week post-surgery.
For the remaining three weeks, have pureed foods only.
Your diet chart would look something like this:
Week#1
Week#2
Week#3
Week#4
Week#5 onwards
Gastric sleeve surgery is just one of the many types of bariatric procedures today. Each bariatric procedure or weight loss surgery is different from the other. Before you choose any, discuss your options with the healthcare provider and the surgeon. This would help you to make the right choice.
Lap-band surgery, or laparoscopic gastric banding, was considered to be a popular procedure once. However, because of the long-term complications associated with the surgery and poor weight loss, the popularity of the surgery dipped worldwide. Today, this type of surgery is rarely performed.
Roux-en-Y gastric bypass is another gold standard bariatric surgery. Of late, gastric sleeve surgery replaced this procedure to become the most popular procedure due to technical simplicities and better results.
Remember, gastric sleeve surgery is permanent. That makes it different from lap-band surgery. While a gastric band or lap band cringes the inner part of the stomach and divides it into pouches, the gastric sleeve removes a part of the stomach. It is possible to remove the gastric band in case of complications but there is no replacement for gastric sleeve surgery.
With the gastric sleeve, patients may not lose as much weight compared to do a gastric bypass. In addition, they also keep the weight off for long. However, gastric bypass patients tend to have some long-term challenges too.
Gastric sleeve is a relatively simpler and easier weight loss procedure from a technical point of view. It takes 40 to 70 minutes for the surgery to complete depending on the condition of the patients, whereas gastric bypass takes 2 to 3 hours.
With gastric sleeve surgery, there is very little risk of vitamin or nutrient deficiency compared to gastric bypass. Moreover, patients do not experience malabsorption.
Gastric bypass surgery can have long-term complications like surgical ulcers, internal hernias, and bowel obstruction. However, chances of developing such complications are very rare in patients opting for gastric sleeve surgery.
The goal of gastric sleeve surgery is to lose weight. However, it is possible that a patient may not be able to lose as much as they expect. It is also highly likely that patients may lose weight only to regain it.
As you would consume fewer calories, your body also gets fewer nutrients. Therefore, deficiencies are inevitable.
Some of the common challenges of gastric sleeve surgery include:
Gastric sleeve surgery, or any other weight loss procedure, is generally not covered by insurance. However, if it does, the patient should have the qualifying BMI (Body Mass Index) to get insurance benefits.
However, if it is not included in the insurance, “self-pay” is the only option for a patient.
Without health insurance, the gastric sleeve surgery cost can vary largely from one country to another, from a facility to another facility. Generally, the cost ranges from USD 15,000 to USD 25,000 in the United States and Canada. However, in Mexico, the cost of gastric sleeve surgery starts from USD 5,000.
Depending on your budget and the choice of facility, you can consult your surgeon and locate the best option that fits the budget.
Once the surgery is planned and scheduled, the surgeon would give you some instructions as your preparatory steps for the surgery:
On the day of the surgery, once you arrive, some preparatory steps would be mandatory:
Once up and awake in the recovery room, gaining senses, patients are given medications to prevent nausea and ease symptoms. Recovery takes 3 days, and then the patient is discharged.
Q: What is your BMI?
Q: Are you 21 years old?
Q: How much weight does a patient lose with gastric sleeve surgery?
Q: Which of these is the benefit of gastric sleeve surgery?
Q: If you have health insurance that includes bariatric procedures, it would also cover gastric sleeve surgery.
Q: How does gastric sleeve surgery helps patients lose weight?
Q: How long would it take for an average patient to recover fully from gastric sleeve surgery?
Q: How long would it take to get back to a normal diet after gastric sleeve surgery?
Q: Food habits and lifestyle changes of patients can dramatically affect weight loss and prevent weight regain.
Q: What type of food is suitable for patients who underwent gastric sleeve surgery?
Q: What is the major challenge for gastric sleeve surgery patients?
Q: Which of these is NOT true?
To find a surgeon in Mexico, consider the following:
Technically, gastric sleeve surgery is a complicated procedure. Patients may develop some physical symptoms that would last long even after the surgery. Medical, as well as mental health issues, may strike. It is critical to discuss the possible side effects and eventualities with the surgeon and team before going under the knife.
In Mexico, experienced surgeons with their teams, take charge of a patient right from the start. From the initial consultation to final preparation for the surgery, they support and assist the patient at every step. From the moment a patient and family arrives in Mexico, the entire responsibility lies with the chosen hospital, facility, or clinic. Healthcare providers only aim to prepare the patient’s body and mind for safe and successful surgery.
In Mexico, medical tourism is a popular concept. People visit the country after finalizing their surgery schedule. They can also enjoy a couple of days in the country after the surgery, which is highly recommended.
One of the major differences in coming to Mexico for the surgery is the cost of the procedure. Definitely, it is lesser than all the countries, which makes it the best choice. Most importantly, Mexico houses some of the most popular bariatric surgeons with several years of experience and expertise in their respective fields. As a result, medical tourism is a popular concept due to which several hundreds of patients come to Mexico for a safer, better, and cheaper alternative to healthy living.
Tijuana, the hub of medical tourism, has some of the best weight loss surgery facilities and hospitals in the country. Patients also feel safe under the guidance of a board-certified surgeon here in Mexico, taking utmost care to deliver the finest weight loss solutions. All the surgeons here in Mexico are licensed and certified to perform bariatric surgery from eminent organizations adhering to the best standards.
In the long run, the success of gastric sleeve surgery depends entirely on a patient, his/her willingness to develop new habits, and the desire to stop poor food habits that promote obesity. Successful are those individuals that create an accountability system to maintain healthy habits.
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