Complex Revision Procedures Provide Customized Options for Patients of Prior Bariatric Surgeries

Specialists at Orlando Health Weight Loss and Bariatric Surgery Institute offer a variety of minimally invasive endoscopic and surgical strategies for patients suffering complications or comorbidity recurrence following a previous weight-loss surgery.

“Bariatric surgeries that have aged poorly, did not achieve lasting weight loss or led to complications may require a revision to modify the original surgery or a conversion to replace it with an entirely different procedure,” says Dr. Andre Teixeira, a board-certified surgeon at Orlando Health Weight Loss and Bariatric Surgery Institute. “As a national referral center, we handle a large number of these complex revisions and conversions with a multidisciplinary team approach.”

These surgeries can address issues like weight gain after gastric bypass, a failed stomach stapling procedure or unsuccessful sleeve gastrectomy. In some patients, organs stretch, a blockage forms or a band slips. Others may develop severe reflux that doesn’t respond to medical management.

In addition to traditional gastric bypass, loop switch or single anastomosis ilea-duodenal surgery (SADIS), institute surgeons have options such as re-sleeving the patient, performing a sleeve to a bypass for severe reflux, converting a bypass to duodenal switch or trimming the pouch. Revisions done endoscopically, like retightening the pouch or a sleeve, are day surgeries at Orlando Health.

“I tell patients we can fix anything as long as there is a mechanical problem,” says Dr. Teixeira. “The magic is figuring out which operation gives them the best long-term outcome. This is our skill set. We look beyond one- or three-year results and focus on 10-, 15-, 20-year results.” 

Orlando Health Weight Loss and Bariatric Surgery Institute is recognized as a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. Its surgeons present frequently at medical conferences globally and are widely published. Orlando Health hospitals are considered among the nation’s best through the IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals study for 2021.