Differentiating Gastric Sleeve Surgery and Gastric Bypass Surgery for Weight Loss

Gastric sleeve, also known as Vertical sleeve gastrectomy, is a choice for individuals who are very ill or cannot endure more intense bariatric processes. It can be a 2-step process’ first part or a standalone surgery which engages a consecutive surgery – usually a complete gastric bypass – for losing a person’s remaining extra weight. Besides, gastric bypass is a quite more meddlesome process which helps to lower the size of the stomach by creating a tiny pocket surgically in the stomach. This article will compare gastric sleeve vs. gastric bypass so you can know their differences in detail and make an informed decision.

What Is Gastric Sleeve Surgery?

A surgeon makes a tiny stomach sleeve in gastric sleeve surgery with the use of a stapling device and the remaining part of your stomach is removed permanently. The size of your stomach will be lowered by almost 75%. It can be the initial step prior to other weight loss surgical processes like gastric bypass or it can be a single weight loss process.

What Is Gastric Bypass Surgery?

Gastric bypass surgery helps a person shed excess weight by changing how his/her small intestine and stomach manage the food he/she eats. Your stomach will be smaller after the surgery. Basically, with less food, you will feel full. The food you consume won’t go into a few parts of your small intestine and stomach which breaks it down. A gastric bypass is considered as a confining operation because it limits both the number of nutrients and calories the body absorbs and food intake. Usually, it is pondered irreversible and changes how a body digests food permanently.

Difference between Gastric Sleeve Surgery and Gastric Bypass Surgery for Weight Loss
While deciding the right surgery for you, you should compare your options. You must know the differences and similarities between the two kinds of bariatric processes. While measuring gastric sleeve vs. gastric bypass, there are many facts to ponder:

1.Suitable patients for every process

Gastric sleeve is sometimes utilized as an initial step for reducing a patient’s weight with a BMI more than 50. Later, suitable patients can determine to endure more complicated processes like a duodenal switch or gastric bypass. Patients with particular medical states which restrict them from selecting complex operations are suitable ones for gastric sleeve procedure as a standalone surgery.

Patients with a BMI more than 40 are suitable for gastric bypass surgery. Usually, it’s a recommended choice for bulky, obese people who find it highly tough to shed weight with medication, diet, and workout. This is also a choice if a patient is suffering from a fatal issue associated with obesity like Type-2 Diabetes. Roux-en-Y laparoscopic bypass surgery is the most common bariatric surgery that outputs long-term positive outcomes but has a little higher risk, as per research.

2.How do both surgeries perform?

Gastric sleeve performs by removing the stomach’s side part surgically while leaving a tinier tub for food storage. Nevertheless, it does not bypass the small or large intestine. Moreover, it removes the hunger-stimulating hormone, ghrelin. After the surgery, patients feel fuller after consuming just 1-3 ounces of food. Additionally, some patients notice up to a 70% removal of extra weight 2 years after the surgery.

The stomach is also made tinier in gastric bypass surgery and the small intestine’s part is closed off to let the food bypass it. A new stomach pouch is made by creating a large or small incision in a patient’s abdomen. Like a gastric sleeve, it leads you to feel fuller for a longer time after consuming just a tiny food portion. The prime difference is that gastric bypass bypasses the digestive track’s part while gastric sleeve does not.

3.Complications, Disadvantages, and Risks

While comparing 2 surgeries, you should note that some long-term researches have been organized based on the outcomes of gastric sleeve surgery in comparison with a gastric bypass that is broadly considered as a standard choice for weight loss because of many decades of detailed research and experience.

Depending on available researches, gastric sleeve relates to the following disadvantages and risks:

Non-reversible
Blood clots, infection, and bleeding
Not covered by some insurance firms as its pondered to be experimental or investigational
Stomach leakage with the stapled line

Disadvantages and risks related to gastric bypass are as follows:

Reflux, bowel obstruction, gallstones, and ulcer
Possible nutritional deficiency
Dumping syndrome
Complex, invasive surgical process
Stomach leakage with the stapled edge
Blood clots, infection, and bleeding

In a nutshell, gastric bypass is riskier than vertical sleeve gastrectomy, but you will first need to check with the insurance company to make sure that it’s covered.

4. Advantages of every surgery

The gastric sleeve provides with more advantages than gastric bypass, incorporating the following:

It keeps the pyloric valve and small intestine intact.
It is less complicated and safer operation.
It’s a choice for high-risk patients with medical issues like anti-inflammatory medication, anemia, prior surgery, Crohn’s disease, and/or high BMI.
It causes natural digestion which does not lead to nutritional inadequacies basically related to gastric bypass.
It restricts food ingestion and hunger by lowering ghrelin, the hunger hormone.

Nevertheless, gastric bypass provides with long-term results affirmed by many years of studies as compared to a gastric sleeve that is comparatively a new process. It provides with the following advantages:

It offers long-term results for weight loss.
It restricts and prevents sweets’ intake.
Malabsorption aids more weight loss.
It restricts food amount you can consume.

5. Weight loss from every surgery

Patients lose weight fast after gastric sleeve and gastric bypass, along the low point coming twelve to eighteen months after the surgical process:

Shed 30% of extra weight in 3 months
Shed 50% of extra weight in 6 months
Shed 65%-70% of extra weight in 1.5 years

Nevertheless, patients of bypass surgery tend to gain less weight again more than 2 years after the process because:

The pouch of gastric bypass is tinier and thereby less capable of stretching out.
Gastric sleeve is not mineral malabsorptive while gastric bypass is (body absorbs a lesser amount of minerals after gastric bypass).