Has anyone heard of the sleeve surgery? My dr's (Moises Jacobs and Eddie Gomez) in Miami, Flordia do this surgery. In a nutshell, it is a surgery they do before lap band (it is considered part of a 2 part surgery, first sleeve than lapband) for those that have to loose at least 100 lbs before surgery. Anyway, they have been doing a study and research and found out that the sleeve surgery is recommended (by them) to those that have failed with lapband. They have done it on many banders with great success. They wanted me to consider this surgery but because my health insurance ran out, I put it in the back of my mind.

I found this explanation: The sleeve gastrectomy is an operation in which the left side of the stomach is surgically removed. This results in a new stomach which is roughly the size and shape of a banana. Since this operation does not involve any "rerouting" or reconnecting of the intestines, it is a simpler operation than the gastric bypass or the duodenal switch. Unlike the Lap-Band procedure, the sleeve gastrectomy does not require the implantation of an artificial device inside the abdomen.

ANyway,anyone heard of it or experienced it?

The surgeon I work for does these, but not on patients he bands. It can be considered the 1rst stage of a by-pass or DS. I asked and he has never heard of anyone doing this on someone they are going to band.

Yes you are right it's taking part of the stomach out to make it like a tube. There is not re-routing or any organs. Yes there is no inplanted devices in your body.

My surgeon has had great sucess with it. Some it's the only thing he has had to do because they have lost all the weight. Others he has had to do some of the 2nd stages mostly to a DS.

Good Luck!!!!

Look up Dr Pleatman here on LBT. He tends to recommmend the sleeve gastrectomy to bandsters who lose their bands for whatever reason. It's the first step to DS, if I'm not mistaken. I just don't know what's the difference between this procedure and stomach stapling. Anyone know?

From my understanding, it's basically the first half of the DS surgery.

Other than that, I haven't heard a whole lot.

My dr has discovered that this is a good surgery for when band isn't working. ANyway, I think when I get my health insurance back I will try to have it. Any suggestions on which health insurance is easier than others on WLS? I will be purchasing insurance via einsurance probably.

Tufts health plan is good. But check out all the sites of the compaines you are looking into. Obesityhelp.com has a section on insurance, you should check it out. Goodluck!

Just caught your conversation about insurance. I have finally given up and will be self-paying. When I decided to be banded, I tried numerous insurance companies. None would cover me because of my height / weight.