What is a Gastric Sleeve (tube stomach)?

This operation is used for patients with a very large amount of overweight. A large part of the stomach is removed laparoscopically and a small tube of 2 – 3cm diameter remains. With the help of this operation, the amount of the absorbed food is substantially reduced and yet a pleasant feeling of satiety is achieved.

Approx. 80% of the overweight is lost in the first 2 years after surgery. This operation is just as effective as the much more complex stomach-by-pass, which also has many more possibilities of complications.

As a result of gastric reduction, much less Ghrelin hormone is produced in the residual stomach. Ghrelin is considered as an appetizing stimulating hormone and is responsible for the “munchies”, which lead – if not controlled – to overweight.

With the gastric sleeve the function of the stomach remains largely unchanged and the patients – after a relatively short phase of introduction – eat almost normal but substantially less. Consequently, the weight loss is not due to a diet but simply to less food intake.

For this operation, patients with a BM I> 40 are eligible. However, if there are other medical problems apart from the overweight, such as high blood pressure (hypertension) and high sugar disease (diabetes), such an operation can already be recommended with a BMI > 35.