Kansas City Weight Loss Surgery Options

Three types of weight-loss surgery in Kansas City are performed at Shawnee Mission Medical Center:

• Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass
• Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy
• Laparoscopic Gastric Banding

All three weight loss surgeries limit the amount of food you can eat at one time and one of the surgeries also reduces your body's ability to absorb some of the nutrients and calories consumed. You and your physician will decide together which surgery is most appropriate for you.

Each of Shawnee Mission Medical Center's surgical options uses a laparoscopic approach, which means that your surgeon will use several small "keyhole" incisions rather than one large vertical abdominal incision. A laparoscopic approach decreases the chances for wound infections and incisional hernias.

Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass

Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass surgery is considered the "gold standard" in weight-loss surgeries performed today in the U.S. It is widely viewed as the safest and most effective means of long-term weight loss. Since 2002, our bariatric surgeons have performed over 1,000 laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgeries, with surgical times, complication and length-of-stay rates lower than the national average.

Gastric bypass surgery consists of two components: (1) a portion of your stomach is stapled into a small pouch and (2) approximately 100cm (40 inches) of your small intestine is "bypassed" so food does not absorb along that portion of the small bowel.

Gastric bypass surgery usually requires a hospital stay of less than 48 hours and a two- to three-week recovery period. Long-term weight loss averages 70-80 percent of excess body weight. Insurance companies may offer coverage for this procedure.

Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy

Previously, the Sleeve Gastrectomy had been used as the first step in a two-step weight loss surgical process. However, the Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy is becoming more common as a single stage stand alone procedure for treating the disease of morbid obesity. The Sleeve Gastrectomy achieves weight loss through restriction only. No intestinal bypassing is done. A staple line divides the stomach and a “sleeve” of a stomach is left that reduces the stomach to one third of its original size. The other two-thirds of the stomach is removed. Weight loss and co-morbidity resolution data has not been reported beyond five years. The data at less than 5 years indicates a 50% excess body weight loss. At this time, insurance companies generally do not cover the Sleeve Gastrectomy procedure.

Laparoscopic Gastric Banding

Approved by the FDA in 2001, laparoscopic gastric banding is rapidly gaining popularity. Since SMMC began offering Laparoscopic Gastric Banding surgery in 2004, over 600 gastric banding surgeries have been performed at our facility.

Gastric banding involves placing a silastic band around the upper portion of your stomach. The band is attached to a small port that lies outside the abdominal wall under the skin and fatty tissue. The silastic band forms a gastric pouch, which provides a sensation of fullness with smaller portions of food. The gastric band provides weight loss through food restriction only and there is no malabsorption component to this type of surgery. To ensure proper weight loss, the gastric band requires a number of in-office adjustments over one to two years.

Although weight loss is slower with banding, the outpatient procedure requires a minimal recovery period, usually less than one week. Long-term weight loss averages 50 to 60 percent of excess weight at the two- to three-year mark. The laparoscopic gastric banding procedure is covered by some insurance companies.