Panama Medical Vacations
Taking Back Your Health with Gastric Sleeve Surgery in Panama
Millions of individuals in the United States and around the world are overweight or obese (severely overweight). When weight increases to an extreme level, it is called morbid obesity. Obesity is associated with diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, some types of cancer, and other medical problems. Bariatrics is the field of medicine that specializes in treating obesity. Gastric sleeve surgery is the term for one type of operation to help promote weight loss. Gastric sleeve surgical procedures are only considered for people with severe obesity and not for individuals with mild weight problems.
The Procedure
This is the newest approach in bariatric surgery. It involves removing about two-thirds of the stomach with a stapling device. It can be done laparoscopically but is not reversible. It basically leaves a stomach tube instead of a stomach sack.
The incisions that the surgeons make nowadays are of no more than 0.4 inches the surgical trauma they produce is much lower and the post surgical pain much more tolerable. Through these incisions, the surgeon can reach the stomach and, using a special stapler, he makes a vertical suture to divide the stomach in two. One of the sections is shaped like a tube that goes from the esophagus to the intestine. The other one is separated and removed. The staples used are quite strong and stay in place very well.
After your surgery
This surgery usually involves a 3 to 4 day hospital stay including one day in Intensive Care. Because the procedure is laparoscopic and only includes seven small incisions, the recovery time is very short. The long term post-op care consists largely of lifestyle changes. The patient will find it only possible to eat a few bites of food and will need to eat more times each day to compensate for the few calories consumed each meal. Follow-up visits to the patient’s family physician will follow periodically for the next year to monitor the patient’s progress.
Risks
The most common risk in all surgeries for weight loss is an infection in the incision. A secondary concern for a gastric sleeve procedure is overeating which can cause the stomach to expand and reduce or eliminate the effectiveness of the procedure. About one-third of all people having surgery for obesity develop gallstones or a nutritional deficiency condition such as anemia or osteoporosis.