Approximately 7-15% of bariatric patients will require a revisional procedure. Reasons for a revisional procedure very, but most commonly, patients seek revisional surgery either for inadequate weight loss or regain of weight years later, or problems with their bariatric procedure.
Weight Loss Revisional Surgery
If patients have had inadequate weight loss after sleeve gastrectomy or regained the weight that he/she lost, a revisional weight loss surgery may be an option. This surgery involves converting the sleeve gastrectomy to a gastric bypass. Workup and postoperative care are identical after revisional surgery as for initial bariatric patients. Revisional weight loss surgery is not an option until a patient is at least 2 years out from initial weight loss surgery. If patients have had a lap band procedure done in the past and are interested in seeking new weight loss options, treatment is removal of the lap band device and conversion to a more formal bariatric procedure. These are all revisional options that we offer patients in our practice, and all revisional surgeries are still done with minimally invasive techniques. Unfortunately, after a gastric bypass surgery, no further weight loss revisional surgeries are available.
Other Revisional Surgery
Some patients can develop problems with their bariatric procedure including worsening heartburn, trouble swallowing, or recurrent pain with eating. All the symptoms may indicate a structural or inflammatory process with the bariatric procedure. We offer treatment for all of these conditions. Workup would involve evaluation with a swallow study and/or endoscopy to identify the problem. Treatment may be related to repair of a hiatal hernia, conversion of the sleeve to a gastric bypass if necessary, or reconstruction of gastric bypass to remove any chronically inflamed portions that may not otherwise heal. Again, all these options are performed with minimally invasive techniques.