Surgical Procedures

We offer several different types of weight loss surgery procedures here at Castleview Hospital – bariatric surgery that is performed laparoscopically. Our patients can expect to leave the hospital with six to eight incisions between ½” to 1 inch long.  This promotes faster healing, shorter hospital stays and a quicker return to work.

We offer the following procedures at Castleview Hospital:

Gastric Bypass

The Gastric Bypass helps our patients lose weight in four different ways.

• Your surgeon will create a small pouch from the upper part of the stomach.  Just by doing this, you will have restriction in the amount of food that you can ingest at any time.  The remaining stomach, called the gastric remnant, is left in place.  It still has a viable blood supply and will continue creating gastric acids needed for digestion.  The remnant will no longer be able to accept food or drink.
• Part of the small bowel is bypassed.  This creates malabsorption of calories, nutrients and vitamins/minerals.
• Bypassing the lower stomach creates a reduction in the “Hunger Hormone” called grehlin, which decreases the appetite in general.
• The bypassing of the small intestine makes it hard to digest sugar and fat.  Eating too much of those foods will trigger an episode we call “dumping”, which can include the following: abdominal pain, rapid heart rate, nausea, diarrhea, sweating, vomiting and general malaise.  These episodes can last from one hour to all day.  While some may consider dumping unpleasant, it is a wonderful reminder to eliminate those bad foods from your diet.  We think of dumping as a benefit of the bypass procedure.

The Gastric Bypass can be a really great procedure for the right patient.  An optimal patient for Gastric Bypass must understand and be willing to follow these rules:

• Tobacco products must be avoided
• Most steroids (including injections) must be avoided
• Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications must be avoided
• Vitamin supplementation is a life-time commitment

Gastric Sleeve

With a gastric sleeve, approximately 85% of your stomach is removed. Leaving a small tube of a stomach  in place.  By doing this, you will achieve immediate restriction in the amount of food that you can eat at any given time.

This procedure is a good option for many patients, as it involves immediate restriction and some appetite suppression which happens as a result of the lower stomach removal.  Patients see a quick weight loss and quicker resolution of co-morbid conditions, including the possibility of immediate improvement for Type 2 Diabetes.

Although the stomach is cut and stapled, the intestines are not manipulated at all, which allows for full absorption of calories, vitamins and minerals.