I am considering being sleeved. I'm in my mid-thirties and I'm wondering if there are any long term risks to having so much of your stomach removed? Hopefully I have another 50-60 years left to live and I'm feeling scared that removing such a large portion of my stomach could be detrimental years down the road. It must be safe or people wouldn't do it so often. I know this procedure is relatively new so maybe they don't know 40+ years. Did anyone else ask about this? Would love feedback!!!

Actually they have been doing gastrectomies for decades, mainly for cancer and excessive ulcers. People can typically live normal lives afterwards with attention to proper nutrition. We made the decision to do the sleeve because of the positive surgical outcomes (even though it is one of the newer procedures to be used for weight loss). Hope this helps ????.

I'm afraid of the same thing. Such a newer procedure in terms of research - my understanding is we know little about what happens 10-20 years post surgery.

They have been doing partial gastrectomy procedures for over 100 years. As the person above said, as long as you pay attention to nutrition, there is no data that suggests you will have anything other than a long normal life. The surgery is only relatively new for weight loss.

All WLS requires patients to be responsible for "eating well" post-op to obtain good nutrition. There's no way around that obligation.

I'm 5 months post-op, and I've never been so aware of my nutritional intake as I am now. And not just about Protein and calories, but Fiber, balanced animal and plant protein sources, sodium levels, etc. I hope to continue my awareness. This is something a lot of people work on, not just WLS patients.

They've been done for many decades, as noted above. The outcomes are fine and certainly orders of magnitude better than long term risks of morbid obesity.

The human body is incredibly adaptive. We can live with 1 kidney, with no spleen, lost of limbs etc....I had a radical hysterectomy and had all my reproductive organs removed right down to the lymph nodes. As mentioned gastrectomies have been done for a very long time and people are able to go on and lead normal lives.

Gastrectomies have been performed for over one hundred years. It is only new to being done for WLS. As a previous poster stated you can live with other organs removed as well. I am a RN and have cared for people with no stomach at all.

Edited January 27, 201511 yr by YourFriendJess

Thank you all for your responses. I did know people have had this similar surgery for many years other than for weight loss but never saw anything correlated with how long they live. Our bodies are incredibly adaptive so your responses makes perfect sense. Clearly I have to keep a commitment about my nutrition for decades to come and not wain from that without facing major repercussions.

I had the same concerns. My doc does a 90% sleeve. That's... A LOT. I figured my chances were better living long term with 10% of my former stomach than all the weight related health problems I'd developed after I turned 40, (and that's when things really began to go down hill for me health wize). Today at 48, after about a 95 pound weight loss, I'm the healthiest I've ever been. Free from the 10 pre-op prescriptions for cholesterol, BP, anxiety and asthma with normal everything. If I have to drink a couple of Ensures a day when I'm a senior citizen, so be it!

My dad had most of his stomach removed in the 70s. He lived to be 80 and could have gone farther but he chose no treatment. He never did follow a nutrition plan!