Before undergoing bariatric surgery, you must learn about the differences between gastric sleeve and Endoscopic Sleeve Gastroplasty. Both these surgeries can help you achieve weight loss effectively.
Combating obesity is a real struggle, even with a balanced diet and strenuous exercise programs. Nowadays, the market is full of fad diets, workouts and weight loss therapies. The reason why most people fail to achieve success with these methods is that they are challenging to sustain.
Bariatric surgery has evolved as an effective way to fight obesity and its associated health risks. The gastrointestinal tract in our body plays a crucial role in weight regulation and metabolic control. A diverse range of surgical and endoscopic interventions have become popular to lose weight.
Among the various surgical options available, gastric sleeve and endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty are two popular procedures. Both these weight loss procedures come with their own set of advantages and disadvantages. Here are the essential aspects to learn about these two procedures.
Gastric Sleeve is also known as sleeve gastrectomy. It is a minimally invasive weight loss procedure. During the operation, your surgeon will make four to five incisions on your abdomen to insert laparoscopic instruments. The gastric sleeve surgery usually takes an hour to complete. Being a laparoscopic surgery, you can resume your activities within a few days.
In gastric sleeve surgery, more than 80% of your stomach will be removed at the weight loss center. Therefore, it is an irreversible weight loss surgical procedure. The surgery will result in a stomach resembling the shape of a banana.
With a reduced stomach size, you will experience less hunger. It leads to early satiety and reduced calorie intake. Through this surgery, your doctor aims to regulate the production of ghrelin, the appetite-causing hormone. You will also experience improved blood sugar control by undergoing this procedure.
When the context is about bariatric surgeries with no downtime, Endoscopic Sleeve Gastroplasty (ESG) will consistently rank at the top. This surgery doesn’t involve making any incisions in your stomach. Moreover, the surgeon won’t remove any part of your stomach during the procedure.
During the operation, the doctor will use sutures to convert your stomach into a thin tube-like shape. In other words, this procedure is reversible, unlike the traditional gastric sleeve surgery. Note that the surgeon moulds a minor part of your stomach while leaving the rest of your stomach intact.
During the operation, the surgeon will use a long slender tube called an endoscope. It is a flexible tube with a camera attached at its end. Similar to the gastric sleeve surgery, the reduced capacity of your stomach helps control hunger and calorie intake.
Here are some differences between these two popular bariatric surgery procedures.
In both these procedures, the final shape of your stomach will resemble a banana. However, the difference exists in how the surgeon achieves this shape. In gastric sleeve, more than 80% of your stomach will be removed. On the contrary, in endoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, 80% of your stomach will be isolated from the main stomach with sutures.
People with obesity prefer both these surgeries due to their minimal downtime. In gastric sleeve surgery, the doctor will make tiny incisions that will take time to heal. However, in endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty, there is no need to make holes in the abdomen. Therefore, patients prefer ESG as it allows them to recover faster.
Gastric sleeve and ESG help patients with achieving sustainable weight loss. After undergoing a gastric sleeve surgery, you can expect to lose 60% of your excess weight. On the contrary, after undergoing an ESG procedure, you will lose more than 20% of your body weight. But remember that you must follow the postoperative instructions and diet to achieve weight loss.
The eligibility criteria for these bariatric surgery procedures are different. To undergo a gastric sleeve, your BMI must be higher than 40. On the other hand, the ESG procedure is recommended for patients with a lower BMI and moderate obesity.
Another key difference between a gastric sleeve and an ESG procedure is its reversibility. The gastric sleeve surgery is irreversible as your surgeon removes a significant portion of the stomach. The ESG procedure is reversible as it doesn’t involve tissue removal. The surgeon can easily remove the sutures when the need arises.
Gastric sleeve and endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty are effective bariatric surgeries to combat obesity. You must consult with your doctor to know about your eligibility for these procedures.
Dr Abdulsalam Al Taie, at the Al Taie Center, is the most experienced bariatric surgeon. He has extensive experience in performing ESG and gastric sleeve surgeries in the UAE. Through this blog, he has underlined the differences between a gastric sleeve and an endoscopic gastric sleeve procedure. It will help you select the right bariatric surgery to lead a healthy life.
