About Gastric Sleeve

Gastric Sleeve surgery, also known as vertical sleeve gastrectomy, gastric sleeve resection, gastric reduction and vertical gastroplasty, is a relatively new form of weight-loss surgery that has gained popularity in recent years with many weight loss surgery patients finding success in the procedure as an alternative to laparoscopic gastric band surgery.

Initially developed as a treatment for stomach ulcers, gastric sleeve gained widespread application in the 1990s as the first half of a two-part weight loss surgical procedure known as the duodenal switch.

When surgeons began to see the successful results obtained from sleeve gastrectomy alone, the procedure began to be offered as a "stand alone" operation after 2002, initially in England. Currently widely performed in the U.S., Mexico and elsewhere, it is sometimes recommended as an effective alternative to laparoscopic banding of the stomach to patients who otherwise qualify for bariatric surgery.

Research has shown a direct correlation between appetite and the body's production of a hormone called 'Ghrelin' which is produced in the part of the stomach that sleeve gastrectomy removes. Thus, the two-part effectiveness of gastric sleeve surgery is believed to result from a reduction in overall stomach capacity combined with excision of the capacity to produce Ghrelin.

Many (but not all) patients who undergo gastric sleeve surgery do so as a precursor to more radical gastric bypass or duodenal switch surgeries, and the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery recommends this as the most useful application of sleeve gastrectomy today. However some bariatric surgical candidates have found that stand-alone gastric sleeve surgery affords the weigh-loss results they need to reclaim healthier lives.