Sleeve Gastrectomy

GASTRIC SLEEVE OPERATION

The sleeve gastrectomy operation involves removing the capacity part of the stomach so that it turns the stomach into a narrow tube or “sleeve”.

Instead of holding about 1.5 litres of food, the stomach can now only hold a small cupful.

We believe that it works by changing the levels of various hunger hormones so that the person no longer feels so hungry between meals and gets a full feeling after eating only a small amount of food.

People who have the sleeve gastrectomy lose weight over about 12 months then their weight stays constant after that.

The average person loses an amount of weight that is 2/3 of their theoretical overweight.  Compared to other operations such as Gastric Bypass, there is less risk of problems.  Most people are very happy with the weight loss they achieve.   People with the sleeve can eat a wide variety of foods, can eat out & enjoy meals and life.

After sleeve gastrectomy we don’t need frequent review appointments, but we recommend 6 monthly to yearly review to monitor progress and nutrition.

The Achilles heel of this surgery is leakage and infection in the early days after the operation.  In our experience, the chance of this is low – 1 – 2%.

Some people may experience reflux and need medication to control this.

Less common complaints are bleeding, insufficient weight loss or excessive weight loss due to a stricture or twist.  Sometimes the sleeve stretches as the years go by and this may cause weight regain or reflux.