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Weight Loss Surgery Services

The Center for Bariatric & Minimally Invasive Surgery is committed to providing safe, high-quality weight loss care and offers several surgical weight loss options including sleeve gastrectomy, gastric bypass and biliopancreatic diversion. The Center for Bariatric & Minimally Invasive Surgery  is accredited by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

 

PMC’s surgical weight loss department is led by PMC Bariatric and General Surgeon Amy Johnson, MD, FACS, FASMBS. Dr. Johnson is board certified and has vast experience, expertise and compassion for her patients which has raised the bar for weight loss surgery in the region. Her primary goal in surgically treating morbid obesity is to eliminate or significantly improve most medical problems affecting her patients.

 

The PMC bariatrics staff takes time to sit down with each patient to create individual plans and provide counseling. There are specific requirements patients must meet in order to undergo weight loss surgery which creates a need for bariatrics staff to talk with patients to identify whether or not they will be a candidate for weight loss surgery.

The Center for Bariatric & Minimally Invasive Surgery offers support groups for bariatric patients which encourages higher success rates. Additionally, patients have access to online and/or in-person seminars to aid them in understanding the processes, lifestyle changes and requirements for surgery.

 

  • Sleeve Gastrectomy

    Sleeve Gastrectomy is a restrictive surgery that permanently reduces the size of the stomach by about 85 percent. This procedure is helpful for patients who wish to lose weight but have health conditions that make other procedures less safe.

     

    During a Sleeve Gastrectomy, a surgeon removes the larger, rounded part of the stomach. The remaining portion of the stomach looks like a sleeve that holds 15 percent as much food as the original stomach, much like the size of a banana. This is the only bariatric surgery that part of the stomach is actually taken out of the body. Unlike Gastric Bypass, which changes stomach openings, Sleeve Gastrectomy leaves the openings intact.

    Advantages

    • Safer than gastric bypass for patients who have a number of health risks.
    • The surgery cuts away the part of the stomach that produces ghrelin, a stomach hormone that stimulates hunger.
    • Although the stomach is smaller, the openings are left intact and that allows digestion to go on as normal.
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    Pikeville Medical Center
    PMC Clinic, 7th Floor
    911 Bypass Road, Building A
    Pikeville, KY 41501
    606-430-2205
    M-F 8am-4:30pm
  • Gastric Bypass

     

    Gastric Bypass is the “gold standard” of operations for the treatment of morbid obesity. The procedure is split into three parts: portioning of the stomach into two sections – an upper (small) pouch and the stomach remnant along with the creation of a Y-connection into the small bowel. The small intestines are essentially shortened, resulting in malabsorption, so there is less area for calories to be absorbed.  It is the combination of the restriction of the new small stomach (holding approx. 15-30mls), and the malabsorption of calories that create such exceptional weight loss results.

     

     

    Advantages

     

    Long-term weight loss: About 80 percent of excess body weight is lost in the first year (which is typically quicker than banding results). Studies show that the weight loss stayed at 80 percent four years following the procedure.

    • Recovery time is shorter: typically two days in the hospital, and 10 -14 days to return to full activity
    • Gastric Bypass Surgery is more difficult to cheat, usually resulting in successful weight loss
    • Ghrelin Affect (the hunger hormone) is greatly suppressed which makes patients less hungry

     

    mbsaqip-seal

    Pikeville Medical Center
    PMC Clinic, 7th Floor
    911 Bypass Road, Building A
    Pikeville, KY 41501
    606-430-2205
    M-F 8am-4:30pm

  • Biliopancreatic Diversion

    What is it?

     

    BPD-DS is a well established weight loss surgery procedure in which approximately 50 percent of the stomach is removed and a significant amount of the small bowel is re-routed to increase malabsorption of calories. This operation is reserved for patients with BMIs greater than 50.

     

    How does it work?

     

    The reduction in size of the stomach by 50 percent results in restriction of food being taken in and much of the effect of the operation is caused by the shortening of the bowel involved in the absorption of calories. This leads to excellent durable weight loss in patients with BMIs over 50. The duodenum is one of the portions of small bowel bypassed leading to the resolution of diabetes. The feeling of hunger normally disappears for some time.

     

    How long will the surgery take?

     

    Two – three hours

     

    How is the procedure performed?

     

    BPS-DS is typically done laparoscopically and requires general anesthesia.

     
    mbsaqip-seal

    Pikeville Medical Center
    PMC Clinic, 7th Floor
    911 Bypass Road, Building A
    Pikeville, KY 41501
    606-430-2205
    M-F 8am-4:30pm
Pikeville Medical Center