Shedding off the extra kilos that gallop around your waist is not always easy. That is the reason why many surgical operations fly in today’s world. And one such surgically enlightening method is Gastric Sleeve surgery or sleeve gastrectomy.
What is gastric sleeve surgery?
Gastric sleeve surgery is a surgical approach to trigger weight loss via tucking in body fat by almost 75 percent.
- The surgery aims to aid a complicated procedure of weight loss.
- And also helps the person to develop into a healthy creature by cutting off the risks that relate to obesity.
- The surgery reduces the amounts of ghrelin, a hormone that regulates appetite. Due to this, the patients tend to eat lesser portions of meals, consequently slimming them down.
- The results are substantially effective, and the procedure is safe to carry out.
How Does the gastric sleeve procedure work?
Gastric sleeve surgery works on three elementary mechanisms:
- The gastrectomy procedure tucks in your tummy and shrinks it down. This way, your stomach can hold fewer portions of food. The newly tucked stomach is considerably low in volume than your previous stomach, thereby shaping you into intaking fewer calories than regular.
- The significant parts of the entire operation seem to target the hunger hormone called ghrelin. The lower it secretes, the lower will be your urge to eat. This medical regulation of your hormone not only controls appetite but also keeps the blood sugar levels in check.
- The results begin to show up soon after the operation. However, the stitches begin to loose after 18 months. Hence, you should moderate your diet portions even after the sleeves fall out or the stitches loosen.
Who is fit enough to undergo sleeve gastrectomy?
Surgeries do not happen right away. In order to undergo surgery, you must surpass certain medical parameters, and only then you are considered eligible. You should undergo gastric sleeve surgery only if:
- Your BMI (Body Mass Index) should exceed 40.
- You are sturdy enough to be instituted with anesthesia and incisions.
- Patients with diseases like type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure conditions can undergo this surgery as such conditions are highly dependent on the weight factor.
- You have tried the traditional weight loss methods by attending gyms, working out, jogging, and dieting for at least six months and yet scored no results.
The actual procedures involved in a gastric sleeve surgery
- If you are a diabetic patient, you will be rendered to the Accu check.
- After that, you will be put on an IV drip. Your body will have to ingest antibiotics, even Heparin, a blood-thinning shot. This will be done to ensure that no one goes through blood clots during the surgery.
- Subsequently, you will be sedated via an IV right before the surgery.
- Proceeding with the surgery, your surgeons will make minuscule incisions on your upper abdominal walls.
- The incisions will then be incorporated with specialized surgery instruments. The most essential of all these instruments is the laparoscope, a long telescope-like tube with light and camera at its rear ends.
- The following procedure of the operation will be the tucking in of the outer stomach that makes at least 75 percent of your entire stomach pouch.
- A series of precise staples will shrink your stomach’s sleeves at the corners to reduce both your food holding capacity and your appetite.
- The wounds of incisions are sealed through sutures that are absorbable.
Medical tests that should be taken before the surgery
Surgeries should be safe to perform and predictable to be carried out, and therefore, it is excessively important to take certain tests before undergoing surgery. Your routine medical tests should include all the information regarding:
- Your blood count
- Blood group
- The base levels of minerals and vitamins
- Your cholesterol levels
- The functioning of kidney, liver, and thyroid gland
- A screening test for diabetes
Moreover, you should have further check-ups in accordance with your family’s medical history like:
- ECG
- Chest x-ray
After-effects of the gastric sleeve surgery
The surgery is performed via highly advanced instruments under Laparoscopy and keyhole incisions; thereby, you are very less likely to experience any pain after this surgery.
However, there could be minor discomforts that you may or may not experience depending on your sensitivity levels. Those disconcerting after effects include:
- Mild aches in your shoulder tips
- Tightening of chest
- The initial discomforts are caused when you move around due to the stitches.
But you don’t need to worry because these disturbing sensations will not horrify you for more than two days. Even after these minor discomforts, you will be able to walk around comfortably.
Conclusion
Gastric sleeve surgery is a pretty good way to get on the fitness track for people for whom the exercises have so far failed to work. However, you should always keep in mind that the effects of surgery wear off after 18 months, and that’s when your challenge begins. The challenges there will be to moderate your diet and be to exercise one in a while.
