By Dr. Jay Long
Whenever patients come into my office and want to talk about gastric sleeve surgery, they have questions. And sometimes every patient has the same types of questions! And sometimes, I realize there is a lot of misinformation out there about gastric sleeve surgery. So I’m here to set the record straight, and hopefully clear things up for you.
No, it’s not literally a sleeve
We do not actually insert a sleeve into your stomach. The surgery is actually named “sleeve surgery” because of the internal appearance of the stomach after the procedure. I’ll bet you’re feeling a lot better about this now aren’t you? It’s a relatively new surgical technique, also referred to as Sleeve Gastrectomy. It is performed laparoscopically.Weight loss surgery fixes bad reflux issues
Not gastric sleeve surgery. It’s actually gastric bypass surgery that fixes reflux. Truth is, gastric sleeve surgery can actually make reflux a little worse. That’s why I really dig into the medical history of my patients before making a weight loss surgery recommendation.Weight loss surgery is the lazy man’s way out of obesity
Nothing could be further from the truth here. Actually, there are multiple major lifestyle changes that a weight loss patient has to undergo:- A reduced-calorie plan of eating (liquid diet) starting 2 weeks prior to surgery.
- Meetings with nutritionists about what to eat, and how to prepare food healthily
- Surgery and post-surgery recovery
- A complete reboot of the patient’s eating and cooking habits
