Imagine feeling full after a meal without eating nearly as much food as you once could — and losing weight in the process. This is the goal of gastric sleeve surgery, one of the leading types of bariatric or weight loss surgeries available today.
If you have struggled to lose weight through lifestyle modifications such as diet and exercise alone, bariatric surgery may be a solution worth exploring. For many patients, genetic or physiological factors can make weight loss difficult. For others, the effects of years of poor lifestyle habits are simply too much to overcome without medical intervention.
If you are considering weight loss surgery, it is important to know that you are not a failure, and you are not alone. There are a number of weight loss procedures that have a track record of helping patients lose weight and keep it off.
Gastric sleeve surgery is just one of those options. First performed in 1988 as part of the duodenal switch procedure, gastric sleeve surgery has become the favored choice by bariatric surgeons in recent years. Gastric sleeve surgery has become popular with patients as with this procedure, the average patient can lose 70 to 80 percent of their excess body weight.
How does gastric sleeve surgery help you lose weight?
During the gastric sleeve procedure, a large portion of the stomach is removed, reducing the overall size of the stomach to about 15 percent of its original size. The new, much smaller stomach pouch or “sleeve” is able to hold only a fraction of the amount of food, which means patients will lose weight by a process of restriction.
In addition to removing a large portion of the stomach, part of what is removed is the part of the stomach that is responsible for the production of ghrelin, the hunger hormone. Gastric sleeve patients aren’t able to consume nearly as much food as they once could, but they also experience less hunger than they did prior to surgery. Gastric sleeve
What is the gastric mini sleeve?
First Baptist Medical Center bariatric surgeon, Dr. Todd McCarty, is an innovator in weight loss surgery and has further improved the gastric sleeve procedure with the invention of his patented McCarty Mini Sleeve. The McCarty Mini Sleeve further reduces the risk of complications from the traditional gastric sleeve surgery.
The trademarked gastric mini sleeve surgery uses an advanced surgical technique, NOTES, to remove the resected portion of the stomach through natural entrances to the body (typically the mouth). This technique avoids the many painful incisions required with the standard laparoscopic gastric sleeve procedure, resulting in fewer complications, faster recovery, few scars and no hospital stay.
During traditional gastric sleeve surgery, the surgeon must make five to six small yet painful incisions in the abdominal wall. The resected portion of the stomach is removed through these incisions. On average, gastric sleeve surgery takes about two hours and requires a hospital stay up to three days.
During the gastric mini sleeve procedure, the stomach is removed through the mouth. After the stomach pouch is created, the patented Mini Sleeve device is inserted into the esophagus to protect it while the excess stomach is removed. For patients who do not prefer the excess stomach to be removed through the mouth, this excess tissue may instead be removed through the belly button, again without the need for multiple incisions.
What are the benefits of gastric mini sleeve surgery?
If you are considering gastric sleeve surgery to help you lose weight, here are a few reasons to choose Dr. McCarty to perform your surgery using the McCarty Mini Sleeve:
- No pre-surgery diet required. Unlike most bariatric procedures which require patients to go on a strict pre-op diet, no pre-surgery diet is required for patients choosing the McCarty Mini Sleeve.
- Short, minimally invasive procedure. Using the NOTES technique shortens the length of the procedure from about two hours to just 30 minutes.
- Fewer incisions and less pain. With the gastric mini sleeve, patients will typically have just two incisions — one by breastbone and one by belly button — compared to five or six incisions with a standard gastric sleeve procedure.
- Fast recovery. The typical gastric sleeve surgery requires an overnight hospital stay for up to three nights, but the McCarty Mini Sleeve procedure is considered an out-patient procedure with fewer surgical risks, allowing patients to go home the day of the surgery.
- No activity. Most patients who undergo the standard gastric sleeve procedure may be under lifting restrictions for up to six weeks following surgery. Patients who choose the Mini Sleeve have no lifting restrictions and are typically able to resume their everyday lives much more quickly.
If weight loss surgery is something you are considering to help you lose weight and reclaim your health, contact First Baptist Medical Center today to schedule a consultation Dr. Todd McCarty.