Gastric Sleeve Illustrations

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Gastric Sleeve Steps, Gastric Sleeve Pictures

Below you can find pictures showing the key steps of a typical gastric sleeve surgery. These gastric sleeve illustrations can show patients exactly how the gastric sleeve operation works and help them understand the basic steps and principles of the surgery.

1) Small incisions are made in the abdominal wall for the insertion of small trocars ( mm is millimetre. A 15 mm troar has a diameter of 15 millimere, or 0.6 inch).

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2) The stomach is inspected. The blood vessels to the lateral side of stomach are divided.

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3) A Bougie tube is inserted into the stomach and serves as a sizer for the size of the new stomach.

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4) Starting from 4-6 cm (1.5-2.5 inches) from pylorus (the valve between stomach and small intestine), the stapler is used to divide the stomach into two parts. At the beginning, the stapler is slightly far away from the Bougie tube to avoid causing a stricture.

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5) Continuous firing of the stapler is used to divide the stomach. After the first fire, the stapler is very close to the Bougie tube and make a small banana shaped new stomach.

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6) The stomach is completely divided into two parts. The removed larger part has about 75-80% of the original stomach volume. Once this part of stomach is decompressed, it can be removed through a very small incision (the 15 mm trocar site). Some scientists believe that the removed upper part of the stomach (fundus) has the function of secreting hunger hormones. Once this part of stomach is removed, many patients don’t feel hungry after surgery.

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7) The new banana shaped stomach has about 20-25% of original stomach volume. Almost all patients eat much less after surgery because they feel full much easier.