Tackling Your Weight Loss Goals

For many people, changing their eating habits, modifying their behavior and participating in physical activity is the best approach when trying to lose weight. However, sometimes, weight loss surgery needs to be part of the solution.

Every day, Middlesex Health’s Center for Medical & Surgical Weight Loss, accredited by the American College of Surgeons, changes lives. Struggling with obesity is a challenge, and one that can continue even after someone has weight loss surgery.

Middlesex helps patients achieve their weight loss goals by taking a comprehensive approach to weight management. This involves education, medical weight loss surgery (otherwise known as bariatric surgery) when appropriate and long-term, follow-up care.

“We want our patients to lose weight in a healthy way, and we work with them to make sure that happens,” says Dr. Jonathan Aranow, a surgeon and director of the Middlesex Health program. “Their success is our success!”

Who qualifies

To be considered a candidate for weight loss surgery, you do need to meet certain criteria. Your health care provider will determine if you meet criteria related to:

• Your Body Mass Index (BMI)
• Your past success with non-surgical weight loss methods
• The impact of your obesity on your daily life
• Your risk of obesity-related illnesses

The benefits of surgery

There are many benefits to weight loss surgery, such as:

• Effective long-term weight loss
• Improvement of an obesity-related illness
• A lower risk for for other chronic conditions that have obesity as a risk factor
• A better quality of life

The risks

Every surgery comes with some risks. Risks for those who undergo weight loss surgery include complications, such as wound infection, pain or blood loss. These risks are risks of any procedure.

Weight loss surgery also means that the body takes in fewer nutrients. Patients who have this surgery are making a commitment to follow dietary guidelines to to take supplements throughout their life.

Single Anastomosis Duodenal Interposition with Sleeve (SADI-S) Surgery

There are different types of weight loss surgery, and medical providers work with patients to determine their best options.

At Middlesex Health, Dr. Aranow recently began performing SADI-S surgery, a robotically assisted laparoscopic procedure. This surgery is incredibly effective at long term weight loss by changing how the body’s hormones respond to food and hunger.

To perform this surgery, a gastric sleeve procedure is performed, and the part of the stomach that stretches the most is permanently removed. Basic stomach function remains the same.

In addition, the surgery also allows about half of the upper small intestine to be bypassed. This results in only a moderate decrease in calorie absorption.

Patients ultimately lose weight by eating less and malabsorption. This results in expected weight loss — and good weight loss maintenance.

The small intestinal portion of this procedure is called SADI and can also be very useful as a second stage procedure in helping individuals who may already have had a sleeve procedure for weight loss, but may not have had adequate success.

“At Middlesex, we always look for new, innovative ways to help our patients,” Dr. Aranow says. “The SADI-S surgery is a relatively new, minimally invasive procedure, and it does just that. It gives our bariatric patients another option as they navigate their weight loss journey.”

For more information on Middlesex Health’s Center for Medical & Surgical Weight Loss, click here. 

 

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