Gastric Sleeve

The sleeve gastrectomy (or gastric sleeve) procedure permanently reduces the size of the stomach by 60-85/. The larger, rounded part of the stomach is removed with the remaining stomach assuming the appearance of a sleeve (or hose or tube) and holding 15-40% as much food as the original stomach. Unlike gastric by-pass which changes stomach openings, sleeve gastrectomy leaves the openings intact so digestion can continue as normal. Also, the body is free of anything foreign as in the gastric banding procedure.

Gastric sleeve may be helpful for patients who wish to lose weight but have health conditions that make combined restrictive/malabsortive weight loss surgery less safe at a particular point in time. It may be a safer and more effective option than gastric by-pass for patients with very high BMI, those with medical problems like anemia, osteoporosis, expensive prior surgeries and other complex medical conditions.

The procedure is irreversible, but it can be converted to other weight loss procedures.