Gastric Sleeve Surgeryin Tijuana, Mexico

Most patients require several months to adapt after a sleeve gastrectomy. Our nutritionist will prescribe a nutritional regimen that is easy to follow and will allow the patient to gradually move up to the next stage. Starting with a liquid diet for a few days, including the Bariatric Protein Meals, you will slowly progress to mushy food and, finally, a normal diet.

Daily activities and exercise should also progress at the same rate, but many patients are surprised that they recover much quicker than they thought. In fact, energy levels are usually higher than expected when the nutrition plan includes the Bariatric Multivitamin and Bariatric Protein Shakes recommended by our team of experts.

The only thing you can’t do after a bariatric procedure like a sleeve gastrectomy is overeat without having severe discomfort, nausea, even vomiting. Ideally, most patients will return to eating a normal amount of food, like three normal meals a day and three snacks between meals.

Gastric sleeve surgery can produce a substantial amount of weight loss in a relatively short period of time. A 65% EWL (excess weight loss) at 18 months is reported in general in the literature. For example, a patient that needs to lose 100 pounds (100 lbs. excess weight) will lose at least 65 pounds.

Other factors influencing total weight loss include the preparation of the patient before bariatric surgery. Preparation not only includes mental and physical preparation, but nutritional preparation as well. Pre-operative preparations include supplementation and protein intake.
At OCC, you will see that all patients undergo pre-surgery preparation and are followed for 5 years after the procedure. OCC Wellness is an online program that helps you achieve your goals.

It starts with liquids during the first days, gradually progressing to mushy food, moving on to semi-solid foods, and finally, to full solids. All this happens during the first couple of months. The good news is massive weight loss occurs during this time and all the health indicators dramatically get better during this period.

Like any weight loss surgery, there is a recovery time, and our nutrition team recommends not drinking alcoholic beverages for the first four months after your procedure.

Gastric sleeve surgery patients will notice, once they are past the liquid phase and eating full solids, that the restriction level will result in around a third of the original meal volume. Eating a third of your typical meal triggers sustained weight loss and improved overall health.

Recent studies show that the inner lining of the stomach can start healing in as little as 6 hours! It is important to follow all the guidelines that we teach our patients prior to bariatric surgery to ensure recovery is uneventful and you will enjoy a good outcome.

Our advanced OCC surgeons use the double-buttress technique that prevents leaks, pouch enlargement, and failure. In this procedure, a thin vertical sleeve of the stomach (approximately eight inches long) is created using a stapling device, and the rest of the stomach is removed. Food passes through the digestive tract as usual and is fully absorbed into the body.

It is common in any type of weight loss surgery to regain weight. The trick is to perform a bariatric surgery that limits the amount of weight that can be regained. At OCC, our gastric sleeve surgeries are performed to be safe and effective, and preferably a permanent weight loss solution. Weight loss has to do with a structured bariatric program, it’s not just another gastric sleeve surgery!

Yes, thankfully! This is what we have named “Sleeve Rescue.” OCC is considered one of the top facilities for gastric sleeve revision and tightening surgery (re-doing the surgery) and is frequently asked to treat patients that have regained weight or have heartburn symptoms after sleeve surgery. In fact, many of the popular, cheaper centers are a constant flow of patients that have what we call “sloppy sleeves” that fail over time.

Yes, sleeves will stretch over time, and they will fail. We developed the “Double-Buttress” technique to oversew and reinforce the staple line to create a safer, more durable double-sealed gastric sleeve.
Gastric sleeve, Lap-band or Gastric Plication procedures have the common purpose of a restrictive “pouch,” meaning the stomach´s limited food capacity. Under some situations, the pouch can be stretched to the point where there is less restriction.

• Do not combine solids with liquids. This increases the pouch volume. Drink liquids 5 min before a meal and resume drinking 45 min later.
• Avoid drinking carbonated drinks like sodas, mineral water, champagne, beer. Any “bubbles” will add air, therefore volume to the pouch.
• Do not force liquids. Sipping throughout the day is the best way to stay hydrated. After bariatric surgery, you´ll need to drink 1oz every 15 minutes. After a week you can slowly increase the amount you can drink. Once healed, ½ cup is likely what you´ll be able to tolerate.
• Avoid forcing the feed. At the early stages before bariatric surgery, most patients feel full with 2-3 tablespoons. The pouch will slowly adapt to its final size about 7 months post-surgery, when most patients will be able to eat about ½ cup of food. You should only eat what you can tolerate and stop eating once you feel satisfied, not full. If you feel discomfort, or have P-Bing, you are eating too much.
• Do not use a straw. You´ll pull air into your pouch. Same thing happens if you chew with your mouth open (gum, or food).
• Avoid junk food. Some patients eat junk food and then food, doing so easily doubles the portions.

Unfortunately, the latest research has non-conclusive evidence. A gastric sleeve will reduce the size of the organ and the part of the stomach responsible for predominantly producing the Ghrelin hormone, also referred to as “the hunger hormone.” When the bariatric surgery is performed, this hormone tends to decrease weeks after the procedure.
Medical studies have also seen this pattern in patients undergoing gastric bypass surgery and gastric plication (the stomach sparing version of the gastric sleeve). In these cases, no stomach tissue is removed, but the same hormonal effect has been observed.

All patients are reminded to keep hydrated before and after their bariatric surgery, but it’s important to advise how much and when to intake those liquids.
After bariatric surgery patients will have a very dry mouth. However, it doesn’t mean that they should guzzle water. Instead, we give patients liquids in 2 forms: ice cubes and small (8 oz) water bottles.

The ice cubes are an excellent way to keep patients hydrated and to rationalize the amount of water intake. By giving a patient an ice cube, and just letting it melt in his or her mouth, it’s a very small but very important amount of water that the patient drinks. If a patient consumes too much liquid too fast, their stomach may become inflamed in the first few hours, leading to extreme discomfort and vomiting.

After tolerating ice cubes, patients can move to small water bottles. We will instruct patients on the amount of water to be taken with each sip of the bottle. By teaching about the correct amount of water intake, we can prevent most problems with inflammation that can lead to a difficult recovery process, more medication, and a prolonged hospital stay.
In a world where the mentality of “more is better,” patients after a gastric sleeve surgery in Mexico benefit from the idea of “slower is faster” as in slower intake equals faster recovery.