Bariatric Procedures & Treatments

Bariatric procedures and treatments

Our bariatric surgeons at Tulane Medical Center are dedicated to providing the latest treatment options available for your weight-loss journey.

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Please call the Tulane Bariatric Center at 504.988.5110, or fill out the form to correspond via email or to request a callback.

Vertical sleeve gastrectomy

With vertical sleeve gastrectomy, the surgeon removes a large portion of your stomach. The new, smaller stomach is about the size of a banana, which limits the amount of food you can eat at once and helps you feel fuller after smaller meals.

Vertical sleeve gastrectomy is currently the most popular bariatric procedure due to its excellent results and high level of safety. This procedure is performed laparoscopically, and uses five small incisions on your abdomen. The procedure can usually be done in less than an hour, and it usually requires only one night in the hospital.

Roux-en-Y gastric bypass

In a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass procedure, a small part of the stomach is used to create a new stomach pouch (roughly the size of an orange), which bypasses part of the small intestine. Due to this, you’ll feel fuller more quickly and you won’t be able to eat as much food at one time.

With Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery, you will lose more weight and have a better resolution of co-morbidities, especially diabetes and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). However, this comes with an increased risk of complications of surgery, such as internal hernias, gastric ulcers and vitamin deficiencies that do not exist with the vertical sleeve gastrectomy.

This procedure is also performed laparoscopically, requires five-to-six small incisions, usually takes two hours and requires two days in the hospital.

Biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch

The biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch procedure is for people who are extremely obese (BMI of 50 or higher) and have not been able to lose weight any other way. This high-risk procedure changes the normal process of digestion by making the stomach much smaller. The diversion allows food to bypass part of the small intestine so you absorb fewer calories, carbohydrates and fat from the foods you eat, helping you lose weight. However, you will still need to commit to a healthy diet and active lifestyle if you want to maintain weight loss with this procedure.

This procedure is essentially a combination of a gastric bypass and a sleeve gastrectomy. With this procedure, you should lose even more weight than with gastric bypass – however, there are more risks associated with this procedure. There are usually five-to-six incisions with this procedure, it usually takes two-to-three hours, and the patient is usually in the hospital for two nights.

Surgical revisions

If you have undergone a bariatric surgery in the past that was unsuccessful for some reason, you may be a candidate for a bariatric revision.

Revision procedures at Tulane Medical Center are certainly not one-size-fits-all, and not everyone is a candidate. The information below will give you general information on your options, based on your original bariatric procedure.

We specialize in revision surgery for weight regain after sleeve gastrectomy and have many options for treating this issue.

We also offer revision surgery after gastric bypass, and again have many options for treating this issue.

Gastric balloons

Please ask us about gastric balloons on your next visit. They are a great non-surgical means towards weight loss. The balloon is left in place for six months in your stomach, giving you the sensation that you are full. After six months, the balloon is removed. Surgeons are still in the process of understanding the long-term weight loss associated with these procedures, but please feel free to ask.