A Board Certified Plastic Surgeon in Scottsdale, AZ
Posts tagged Bariatric Surgery
News: Bariatric surgery keeps getting safer.
Dec 31st
Scottsdale – Bariatric surgery keeps getting safer. In our final review of the year, we discuss the bottom line numbers with bariatric surgery. According to a Duke University Medical Center researcher who reviewed data from nearly 60,000 patients, modern weight-loss surgery resulted in low complication and low mortality rates. The analysis indicates complication rates are around 10 percent, with the most common problem being nausea and/or vomiting. Importantly, the total mortality rate was under one percent (0.135%) with 78 deaths reported among 57,918 patients.
“The complication and mortality rates are even lower than have been reported in the past,” says Eric J. DeMaria, MD, of the Department of Surgery at Duke, who presented the findings at the annual meeting of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery in Grapevine, TX. The data was accrued from participants in the Bariatric Surgery Centers of Excellence program. “We believe the Bariatric Surgery Centers of Excellence program is one reason why there is an even further reduction in mortality being observed,” says Dr. DeMaria.
The safety results are the first to be derived from the Bariatric Outcomes Longitudinal Database (BOLD), compiled by the Surgical Review Corporation, an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to advance the safety, efficacy and efficiency of bariatric and metabolic surgical care, worldwide. . The organization has designated nearly 650 surgeons and more than 350 hospitals and freestanding outpatient facilities since launching the centers of excellence for bariatric surgery in 2003. “The data collection effort is significant because it will help us understand how to better care for bariatric surgery patients now and in the future,” says Dr. DeMaria. According to the ASMBS, more than 200,000 people undergo bariatric surgery each year in the U.S.
“This is just the beginning,” added Dr. DeMaria, “This enormous database will help us develop risk stratification guidelines for patients so we will know definitively what the risks are for a certain type of patient, and will then be able to focus on how to improve those risks. It also allows researchers to look at less common issues with more information than we’ve ever had before.”
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What is Gastric Banding?
Dec 23rd
Learning about Laparoscopic Gastric Banding.
Scottsdale – I perform plastic surgery in patients after laparoscopic-assisted gastric banding. Lap gastric banding is the second most common weight loss procedure. I decided to blog about this important procedure to educate patients who are considering weight loss surgery before having plastic surgery.
Using small incisions and utilizing laparoscopic instruments, the surgeon places an adjustable silicone band around the upper part of the stomach. The stomach which is a large pouch-like structure is squeezed into a smaller 1 1/2 inch pouch with a small one inch outlet. After banding, the smaller stomach can only hold an ounce of food. The band around the stomach can be adjusted in order to control the rate of weight loss. The gastric band has a plastic tube that runs from the band to an access port placed under the tummy skin.
To adjust the band, saline can be injected or removed from the access port under local anesthesia. The saline flows into or out of the silicone band, adjusting the pressure and the size of the stomach outlet. Placing saline into the band makes the outlet smaller, increasing the rate of weight loss. The most common complication after lap banding is nausea and vomiting, usually occuring when the band is too tight. The band can be loosened if the patient develops these symptoms.
Overall, gastric banding surgery has a low complication rate, is the least invasive and the safest of all the weight loss surgery options. It is also totally reversible. Lap banding, on average, leads to the loss of about 40% of the excess weight. Results do vary widely. Lap gastric banding is a procedure I do not perform.
