Today, about 1 billion people around the globe are overweight and around 300 million are in the obese class I, II, and lll. No doubt being obese is a major health issue that can lead to various health issues. These may include cancer, heart attack, kidney failure, and the digestive system’s unresponsive phase. These symptoms can lead to severe damage to the major organs of the body and can even cause death in most situations. 

To cope with the medical complications caused due to severe obesity, various stomach reduction surgery practices are adopted. These bariatric surgical procedures include:

• Gastric bypass
• Sleeve gastrectomy
• Adjustable gastric band 
• Biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch

What Is Gastrectomy Sleeve?

This is a special weight loss operation that is done when the patient is at a higher risk of weight gain-related diseases. This is basically a stomach reduction surgery in which almost 20% of the patient’s stomach remains behind in the abdomen, while 80% of it is removed. This way, the size of the stomach becomes very small and gets filled with a little amount of food.

Downsides of Sleeve Gastrectomy Surgery:

This stomach reduction surgery paves a path for many downsides which include:

Intra-Operative Drawback:

Sleeve gastrectomy is concerned with multiple intraoperative complications that may include excessive bleeding, gastric fistulae, and food content leakage during the surgery. After the surgery to lose weight is done, difficulties can still arise which are considered as after effects of it. But intraoperative issues can be handled easily during surgery by doctors. This is why the main focus is always thrown on post-operative complications. 

There is no standard medical procedure that could be adopted to detect intra-operative staple line bleeding if any. On the other hand, this bleeding if exceeds the limit, can cause a nuisance and is treated by using sutures, sealants, clips, and cauterization techniques. Various studies have revealed that this bleeding is actually due to stapler misfires. A few medical scientific studies have yielded that it does not matter whether the bleeding is not time taking during the surgery to lose fat, but it disturbs the momentum of doctors to perform operations steadily.

Ethnic Disparities:

• There is no independent relation between ethnicity and bariatric stomach reduction surgery
• But recent research has shown that Asians are more likely to have metabolic complications even if their BMI is lower enough. Another research on Indian patients has shown that those having low BMI are more likely to have obesity-related health problems
• The remission for African-American is much higher than for European-American Patients
• Blacks are more likely to have post-operative problems while White and Hispanics do not have

Gender Drawbacks:

There was a time when LDL and total cholesterol levels for men were likely to show remarkable differences. But now women are also subjected to cholesterol issues due to the increased amount of sweets they eat. If women go through bariatric weight loss surgery, then they have to face severe iron deficiency and anemia during the phase of fertility or reproduction. When it comes to males, their larger body masses lead to increased surgical time.

Early Complications:

After the geriatric surgery to lose fat is performed, the patient can have many health issues including:

• Pulmonary emboli
• Chest infections
• Abscess
• Incisional hernia
• Relaparoscopy for retained drain
• Anatomic leakage
• Infection in surgical wounds
• Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)

Apart from these issues, dumping is another health problem that can be seen in certain patients after the surgery is performed. This is due to the various types of foods that do not get digested easily. In such a situation, a patient may feel severe abdominal pain, bloating, flushing, light-headedness, and diarrhea.

Nutritional and Metabolic Issues:

A person who has gone through gastrectomy sleeve stomach reduction surgery may have to face nutritional deficiencies. These nutrients include vitamin B12, iron, vitamin D, and calcium. The lack of these nutrients leads to complications like:

• Folate
• Fat-Soluble Vitamins
• Thiamine

Researchers have revealed that a patient only loses weight within the first 3 years of the gastrectomy sleeve surgery to reduce weight. This duration can increase up to a maximum of 5 years. After this tenure, the nutrients in the patient’s body begin to reduce with the passing of time.