Now that the champagne bottles have long been popped and the confetti swept off the streets, it is time for all of us to try not to forget about the New Year’s resolutions that we’ve made to help better ourselves. Losing weight is one of the most common New Year’s resolutions in America, but it is also one of the hardest to keep. It often calls for a complete lifestyle change that fundamentally alters the way we eat and exercise, never an easy feat. To make things worse, hunger cravings throughout the day can break even the most strong-willed dieter. At Beverly Hills Physicians, we have experienced consistently strong results losing weight with a number of bariatric surgery procedures. These procedures break down roughly into two categories.

1. First Time Bariatric Procedures – We specialize in performing two different types of bariatric surgery, the Lap Band procedure and the sleeve gastrectomy. These two minimally invasive procedures have been proven to safely and consistently give patients the tools necessary to begin losing weight. The Lap Band procedure involves placing an adjustable band around the stomach to control food intake and make patients feel full faster. The sleeve gastrectomy involves removing a portion of the stomach, resulting in a much smaller stomach that gets full with small portions. Many experts have noted that patients generally lose more weight with the sleeve procedure, but it is slightly more invasive and not reversible.
2. Revision Surgery – One advantage of the Lap-Band procedure is that it can be reversed and revised. For patients who have previously had a Lap Band procedure but are disappointed with the results, we offer expert revision surgery to increase the chance of long-term weight loss. In this case, our great BHP bariatric surgeons will remove the Lap-Band and give the patient a gastric sleeve instead. Many patients choose this option because the gastric sleeve does not involve any foreign instruments that can sometimes cause irritation.

Losing weight is by no means an easy task, but bariatric surgery can help give obese patients the help that they need to succeed where they’ve failed in the past.