Standard bariatric surgery including gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy do produce significant weight loss reduction. However, patients will often regain their weight over time and a portion of them may return to their baseline weight before the surgery.
An article published in Obesity Surgery revealed that 1 in 5 patients will eventually regain more than 15% of their body weight, 5 years post-surgery. 1 National Institutes of Health reported in an article published in 2023, that 37% of bariatric surgery patients had weight regain at the 7 year follow up and in as little as 2 years. 2 To date, surgical revision was the only option. But now, incisionless endoscopic revisions offer minimal risks and are devised to restore the goals of the original bariatric surgery, whether it was the gastric bypass or gastric sleeve surgery.
1Tolvanen, L., Christenson, A., Surkan, P.J. et al. Patients’ Experiences of Weight Regain After Bariatric Surgery. OBES SURG 32, 1498–1507 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-022-05908-1
2Noria SF, Shelby RD, Atkins KD, Nguyen NT, Gadde KM. Weight Regain After Bariatric Surgery: Scope of the Problem, Causes, Prevention, and Treatment. Curr Diab Rep. 2023 Mar;23(3):31-42. doi: 10.1007/s11892-023-01498-z. Epub 2023 Feb 8. PMID: 36752995; PMCID: PMC9906605.
Gastric bypass is one of the most common bariatric surgeries in which a large portion of the stomach and the first part of the small bowel is diverted, creating a small stomach pouch attached directly to the small intestine. Both the stomach pouch and the connection site to the small bowel, called the ‘outlet,’ can get enlarged over time allowing patients to eat more before feeling full. The majority of patients will eventually regain weight after the surgery and more than 20% will actually regain the entirety of the weight lost.
With endoscopic gastric bypass revision, we tighten this outlet and the stomach pouch (if needed) by placing sutures in a minimally invasive way. Compared to surgery, this is an incisionless approach that will allow you to return to that sense of fullness and to lose the weight you previously lost with minimal risk.
Sleeve gastrectomy is the most performed bariatric surgery currently in the United States. This is a procedure in which the majority of the stomach is stapled and removed leaving behind a tube-shaped stomach allowing patients to feel full faster and eat less. Unfortunately, many patients experience expansion of the narrowed, tube-shaped stomach over the course of several years resulting in weight regain.
With endoscopic gastric sleeve revision, we tighten this expanded sleeve by placing sutures in a minimally invasive way. Compared to surgery, this is an incisionless approach that will allow you to return to that sense of fullness and to lose the weight you previously lost with minimal risk.
