Gastric Sleeve (Sleeve Gastrectomy)

A sleeve gastrectomy works by reducing the size of your stomach. Naturally, the smaller the stomach you will have after the operation will decrease the portion size you can eat, as you’ll feel full very quickly and continue to feel full for several hours.

Besides helping you eat less due to the reduced stomach size, sleeve gastrectomy works by reducing your appetite. The removed part of your stomach produces a hormone called ‘ghrelin’. This hormone stimulates your appetite and makes you feel hungry. Taking out this part of your stomach will reduce your ghrelin hormone level and hence will reduce your hunger feeling. This added benefit will help you in losing weight after this procedure.

In the first 18 months following surgery, you can expect to lose an average of 66% of the extra weight you are carrying over and above a normal body weight (excess body weight)

You surgeon might recommend sleeve gastrectomy to you if:

• Your body mass index (BMI) is 35 or higher, or if your BMI is above 30 and you also suffer from obesity related medical conditions which may improve with the surgery (e.g., diabetes, high blood pressure or sleep apnoea).  If you are of Asian or Afro-Caribbean origin, the BMI cut-off is even lower because the risk of metabolic diseases starts at BMI’s as low as 27.
• Your diet does not contain a large number of sugary foods.
  If your BMI is > 65 gastric sleeve is often used as a first stage surgery to help you lose enough weight so you can then safely have a second weight-loss surgery (gastric bypass or SADIS) about 12 months later.
• You are older or have other risk factors for surgery like heart, lung or liver problems. Sleeve gastrectomy may be in this situation a safer choice for you than other longer and more complicated weight-loss surgeries.

Rarely, the decision to perform sleeve gastrectomy (instead of gastric bypass) is made during the operation. Reasons for making this decision include an excessively large liver or extensive scar tissue and bowel adhesions that would make the gastric bypass procedure too long or unsafe.  If we think it’s likely that this might be necessary for you, we will explain this plan to you beforehand and ensure that you are happy to proceed on that basis.