Best Practice Guidelines for Sleeve Gastrectomy
An international panel of leading bariatric surgeons has reached consensus on several essential aspects of laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, including patient selection, proper surgical technique, and prevention and management of complications. Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is a relatively new primary weight loss procedure that has quickly gained in popularity due to its excellent weight loss outcomes, [...]
Read the full article →ASMBS Updates Position Statement on Sleeve Gastrectomy
The American Society For Metabolic And Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) recently issued an Updated Position Statement on Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy as a Bariatric Procedure. The ASMBS statement highlights the “substantial comparative and long-term data now published in the peer-reviewed literature demonstrating durable weight loss, improved medical comorbidities, long-term patient satisfaction, and improved quality of life after [...]
Read the full article →Bariatric Surgery Trends in California Hospitals
The increasing popularity of weight loss surgery prompted the State of California to examine hospitalization data for bariatric procedures, focusing on patient characteristics, cost, outcomes, and the hospitals where the surgeries were performed. Among the key findings of the report is the fairly recent and rapid shift away from open Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, the rapid [...]
Read the full article →Bariatric Surgery Safety and Outcomes in Extremely Obese Patients
A recently published study highlights the safety and feasibility of laparoscopic bariatric surgery on extremely obese patients as well as the outcomes of different surgical approaches. Although it would seem that the most likely candidates for bariatric surgery are those with the most weight to lose, they often do not qualify for bariatric surgery. Surgery [...]
Read the full article →Body Contouring After Bariatric Surgery
A new study finds that the majority of post-bariatric surgery patients are not informed of the multitude of body contouring procedures available to them, even though such a procedure could benefit their health, comfort, and quality of life. The study also found that many of these patients would consider undergoing a body contouring procedure if [...]
Read the full article →CMS Considers Coverage of Gastric Sleeve
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said they will consider a proposal to cover laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy as a treatment for obesity for Medicare beneficiaries. The agency is requesting public comments to determine “whether there is adequate evidence, including clinical trials, for evaluating health outcomes of laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy for the indications listed [...]
Read the full article →Initial Gastric Plication Results Positive
A recent study finds that laparoscopic greater curvature plication, compared to other restrictive bariatric procedures, is a feasible, safe, and effective procedure for short-term excess weight loss with low complication rates. The laparoscopic greater curvature plication (LGCP) procedure, also known as gastric plication, is a new restrictive bariatric surgical technique that reduces stomach capacity by [...]
Read the full article →Hospital to Start Performing Bariatric Surgery on Children
Obesity is such a serious problem in Qatar, that the Hamad Medical Corporation has started performing bariatric surgery on children. The youngest patients so far have been teenagers aged 14 to 18, but over the next few months they plan to operate on children as young as eight years old. The overwhelming demand for bariatric [...]
Read the full article →Fight for Bariatric Coverage as Essential Benefit
The Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) is in Washington DC today to host a Congressional Briefing on obesity treatment and to urge Senate offices to sign the Akaka/Inouye letter to HHS supporting coverage of obesity treatment in the essential benefits package. The OAC briefing being presented is entitled “Often Stigmatized, Rarely Treated, Affecting Millions — The [...]
Read the full article →Diet and Exercise Programs Useless for Obese
An opinion article recently published in The Medical Journal of Australia calls for the greater use of bariatric surgery, citing the high failure rate of diet and exercise programs in helping obese people maintain long-term weight loss. Newly discovered biology about the body shows “that once someone becomes overweight, that state is physiologically defended” by [...]
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