Many people who are involved with weight loss surgery—whether surgeons, their support staff, bariatric surgery recipients or hopefuls, etc.—have noticed a recent trend towards doctors and patients choosing the sleeve gastrectomy. The board-certified bariatric surgeons at Beverly Hills Physicians have also noted this trend and suggest its rise in popularity could be due to many sources. These include:

• Gastric sleeve is growing in safety. Surgeons seem to be constantly perfecting the relatively new weight loss procedure.
• Curbs hunger. The sleeve procedure removes the portion of the stomach that produces ghrelin, which causes (sometimes insatiable) feelings of hunger.
• Popularity in the media. Many celebrities have been public about their bariatric surgery, which puts much more information about the operations out there. Comedian Lisa Lampanelli is one who specifically had the gastric sleeve.
• It’s a great option for revision weight loss surgery. When a lap band operation from another doctor has failed (either it’s uncomfortable or didn’t provide sufficient weight loss), a BHP bariatric surgeon can recommend a minimally-invasive lap band to sleeve conversion. This operation can get the patient back on track to losing the weight they originally hoped to lose.

As more and more doctors flock towards the gastric sleeve, we will have to see if it becomes the most popular of the bariatric procedures. At Beverly Hills Physicians, however, only the most appropriate (if any) weight loss surgery is recommended for each patient. To learn about the BHP difference, give us a call at 800-670-3602.