Can Gastric Sleeve Surgery be redone in Puerto Vallarta?
Gastric Sleeve Surgery is an advanced Bariatric surgery where the patient’s stomach size is reduced between 60 to 80%, allowing patients to lose weight by restricting the amount of food they eat and helping the patient feel full sooner and remain without hunger throughout the day. Gastric sleeve surgery is one of the most popular and successful surgeries for weight loss, however, sometimes some of the patients let their results go after successful weight loss and some ask if the gastric sleeve surgery can be redone. The answer is yes and no.
There are a number of factors that might contribute to the fact that some patients fail or regain weight some years later after having Gastric Sleeve Surgery. The main reason for this situation is related to behavioral changes, reflux disease, or stress in their lives. Also, some patients just fall back to eating the wrong foods and bad habits can return.
So, if a patient finds themselves in this type of situation, where they had prior success with their sleeve, then ultimately no, their sleeve surgery cannot be redone. These patients may have a second chance at weight loss by having an additional procedure, called revision surgery, to help them to lose weight again and improve their health. This revision surgery would be a sleeve to mini bypass or sleeve to full gastric bypass, but a re-sleeve surgery typically does not work in any instance where the patient had success with their original sleeve surgery.
Since obesity is a chronic disease, if Gastric Sleeve patients do not take the responsibility of life-changing habits and dietary changes by following their surgeon’s instructions and nutrition guidelines, then they may stop having the typical results of weight loss and their stomachs may even stretch with time.
IF, however, you have had sleeve surgery and never lost any weight from the beginning even when following your doctor's dietary guidelines, or find yourself able to eat more than 3-4 ounces of food in a meal, then most likely your sleeve surgery was not done correctly in the beginning and then in this only instance, a patient may have a sleeve redone, so long as the surgeon finds that the original sleeve was not done properly or left too large. In these instances a re-sleeve if done, may help the patient lose the weight they were trying to lose from the beginning but this is the only real instance when a sleeve surgery can be redone with any decent results.
There are also patients who may suffer from reflux disease after Gastric Sleeve Surgery. Obviously, these patients need to discuss how to get their stomachs back in balance before taking the decision of having a further surgical intervention. If they are candidates for revision surgery after evaluating their particular situation, the most common revision suggested are Mini Bypass or Bypass Revision if they have had a Gastric Sleeve procedure done prior.
The Mini Bypass procedure is less technically challenging to perform than the RNY Bypass and carries a lower percentage of complication risk. This is also a laparoscopic weight loss surgery, similar to Gastric Bypass but it only has one connection to the small intestine and this restricts and impairs the absorption of food nutrients across the gastrointestinal tract.
With the Gastric Bypass, the stomach is divided into a small pouch that processes the food and a much larger lower portion of the same stomach is bypassed by the small intestine. Here the doctor will remove about a meter and a half of the small intestine triggering malabsorption which helps the patient lose weight. The small intestine is connected to the pouch after the removal of that section as such the stomach will be smaller and there will be also changes in hormones affecting appetite. A conversion to a Gastric Bypass is particularly effective for those who also have reflux disease.
Mini Bypass or Bypass Revision surgeries will be the optimal choice for failed Gastric Sleeve patients who have had success with their original sleeve but unfortunately gained weight down the road. However, a bariatric surgeon must evaluate the general shape of their anatomy to see what actual options might be right for each individual patient.
It is important that patients base their decisions on their surgeon assessment who would obviously recommend the most appropriate technique which should be performed for their revision surgery according to their specific needs, habits, and the type of revision procedure most suitable for them.
For more information regarding Clinics/ Hospitals and Weight Loss Options mentioned in this article:
Weight Loss Team – Bariatric Surgery Center at the CMQ Riviera Nayarit Hospital
Website: www.weightlossteam.com/
Email: info@weightlossteam.com
Telephone: Toll free 1(800) 404-9064 or + 1(818) 949-6911.
