Bariatric Surgery

Weight loss surgery, known as bariatric surgery, offers sur­gi­cal inter­ven­tion for indi­vid­u­als with obe­si­ty to reduce weight and enhance life qual­i­ty. There are a vari­ety of sur­gi­cal pro­ce­dures that fall under this cat­e­go­ry, includ­ing gas­tric bypass and sleeve gas­trec­to­my. These pro­ce­dures aid weight reduc­tion by mod­i­fy­ing the diges­tive sys­tem’s struc­ture. Bariatric surgery oper­a­tions can be per­formed either through tra­di­tion­al open surgery requir­ing a sub­stan­tial inci­sion or via min­i­mal­ly inva­sive tech­niques using small­er incisions.

When per­form­ing robot­ic-assist­ed bariatric surgery, your sur­geon con­trols spe­cial­ized robot­ic arms that pre­cise­ly han­dle and oper­ate the sur­gi­cal instru­ments dur­ing this min­i­mal­ly inva­sive weight reduc­tion procedure.

While both robot­ic and laparo­scop­ic approach­es to bariatric surgery uti­lize small inci­sions, cam­eras, and spe­cial­ized instru­ments, they dif­fer in exe­cu­tion meth­ods. Robot­ic pro­ce­dures require sur­geons, like those at Duly Health and Care, with spe­cial­ized train­ing to oper­ate the sophis­ti­cat­ed robot­ic sur­gi­cal technology.

When Robot­ic Bariatric Surgery May Be Appropriate

This sur­gi­cal approach might be con­sid­ered when weight man­age­ment through dietary changes, phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, or phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal inter­ven­tions has proven unsuc­cess­ful. Can­di­dates typ­i­cal­ly include those with a BMI exceed­ing 35, or indi­vid­u­als with a BMI between 30−34.9 who expe­ri­ence obe­si­ty-relat­ed health complications.

• Dia­betes (Type 2)
• Car­diac conditions
• Ele­vat­ed blood pressure
• Increased cho­les­terol levels
• Breath­ing inter­rup­tions dur­ing sleep
• Liv­er dis­ease unre­lat­ed to alco­hol consumption

Get­ting Ready for Robot­ic Bariatric Surgery 

Gen­er­al­ly, prepa­ra­tion for robot­ic-assist­ed weight loss surgery may include these essen­tial steps:

• Your health­care team will exam­ine your med­ical back­ground and con­duct a phys­i­cal assess­ment to iden­ti­fy any health con­cerns requir­ing atten­tion before pro­ceed­ing with surgery.
• Based on your health his­to­ry, lifestyle fac­tors, and age, var­i­ous diag­nos­tic tests might be nec­es­sary, includ­ing blood analy­ses and imag­ing stud­ies, to detect poten­tial issues that could affect sur­gi­cal safety.
• You’ll need to dis­close any med­ica­tion sen­si­tiv­i­ties, anes­the­sia reac­tions, or latex allergies.
• It’s cru­cial to inform your physi­cian about all cur­rent med­ica­tions, sup­ple­ments, and exist­ing health con­di­tions such as res­pi­ra­to­ry or car­diac issues.
• Your doc­tor may instruct you to dis­con­tin­ue cer­tain med­ica­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly blood-thin­ning agents, anti-inflam­ma­to­ry drugs, aspirin, or nutri­tion­al sup­ple­ments for one to two weeks.
• Avoid­ing alco­hol and tobac­co prod­ucts is rec­om­mend­ed for sev­er­al days before and weeks fol­low­ing surgery, as these sub­stances can impede prop­er healing.
• Fast­ing from all food and bev­er­ages is required for at least 8 hours pri­or to your sur­gi­cal appointment.
• You’ll need to coor­di­nate trans­porta­tion home post-surgery.
• After dis­cussing the ben­e­fits and risks of the pro­ce­dure, you’ll be asked to pro­vide writ­ten con­sent via a signed autho­riza­tion form.

How Robot­ic Bariatric Surgery Works 

Com­mon bariatric pro­ce­dures include gas­tric bypass oper­a­tions, sleeve gas­trec­to­my, and sin­gle anas­to­mo­sis duo­de­nal switch. Your sur­geon will select the appro­pri­ate tech­nique based on pro­fes­sion­al judg­ment and your spe­cif­ic health require­ments, using robot­ic tech­nol­o­gy. These sur­gi­cal approach­es work by either restrict­ing stom­ach capac­i­ty, lim­it­ing nutri­ent absorp­tion, or com­bin­ing both strate­gies. The oper­a­tion typ­i­cal­ly requires gen­er­al anesthesia.

The robot­ic sur­gi­cal plat­form fea­tures a con­trol con­sole for the sur­geon, a patient-side unit with four inter­ac­tive mechan­i­cal arms, advanced 3D visu­al­iza­tion tech­nol­o­gy, and spe­cial­ized minia­ture sur­gi­cal tools. Dur­ing the pro­ce­dure, your sur­geon oper­ates from the con­trol sta­tion, view­ing an enlarged, high-def­i­n­i­tion three-dimen­sion­al dis­play of the sur­gi­cal area. The inter­nal abdom­i­nal struc­tures appear on a mon­i­tor via cam­era transmission. 

To reach the oper­a­tion site, your sur­geon cre­ates small inci­sions in your abdomen to insert minia­tur­ized instru­ments. These tools enable pre­cise and con­trolled sur­gi­cal maneu­vers. The sur­geon manip­u­lates mas­ter con­trols sim­i­lar to for­ceps, which the robot­ic sys­tem trans­lates into exact instru­ment move­ments to mod­i­fy your diges­tive tract accord­ing to the spe­cif­ic bariatric tech­nique. The surgery aims to pro­mote sig­nif­i­cant weight reduc­tion by cre­at­ing ear­li­er sati­ety with small­er food por­tions, there­by reduc­ing caloric intake, and decreas­ing calo­rie absorp­tion through diges­tive sys­tem modifications.

After Surgery Care and Heal­ing Process 

Fol­low­ing your pro­ce­dure, you’ll typ­i­cal­ly remain hos­pi­tal­ized for approx­i­mate­ly 24 – 48 hours. Med­ical staff will admin­is­ter pain man­age­ment med­ica­tions to ensure your com­fort and pre­scribe stom­ach acid reduc­ers. Nurs­ing per­son­nel will encour­age ear­ly mobi­liza­tion to pre­vent com­pli­ca­tions like blood clots, res­pi­ra­to­ry issues, and pres­sure sores. 

Your nutri­tion will begin with liq­uids only for the ini­tial two-week peri­od. Your sur­gi­cal team or nutri­tion spe­cial­ist will pro­vide a cus­tomized eat­ing plan with spe­cif­ic post-oper­a­tive guide­lines. Main­tain­ing ade­quate hydra­tion is essen­tial to pre­vent flu­id deple­tion. You should abstain from tobac­co prod­ucts and alco­holic bev­er­ages for the rec­om­mend­ed time­frame as they can inter­fere with healing. 

Avoid vig­or­ous phys­i­cal activ­i­ties and don’t lift objects weigh­ing more than 5 pounds dur­ing your recov­ery peri­od. Post­pone dri­ving until you’ve suf­fi­cient­ly recov­ered and received med­ical clear­ance. A sched­uled check-up appoint­ment will be arranged to eval­u­ate your recov­ery progress.

Advan­tages of Robot-Assist­ed Weight Loss Surgery 

Com­pared with tra­di­tion­al weight loss sur­gi­cal tech­niques, robot-assist­ed pro­ce­dures may pro­vide sev­er­al advan­tages, including:

• Reduced inci­sion size
• Less blood loss
• Faster recu­per­a­tion
• Reduced mus­cle damage
• Decreased infec­tion likelihood
• Short­ened hos­pi­tal duration
• Reduced com­pli­ca­tion rates
• Min­i­mized dis­com­fort and vis­i­ble scarring

Poten­tial Risks and Complications 

While robot-assist­ed weight loss surgery is gen­er­al­ly con­sid­ered safe, like all sur­gi­cal inter­ven­tions, cer­tain risks and com­pli­ca­tions may arise, such as:

• Inter­nal hemorrhage
• Wound infec­tion
• Stom­ach upset and emesis
• Flu­id deficit
• Vit­a­min and min­er­al insufficiencies
• Stom­ach con­tents leaking
• Injury to sur­round­ing organs
• Blood clot for­ma­tion in deep veins 

For more infor­ma­tion, or to sched­ule an appoint­ment to dis­cuss your weight loss goals and to deter­mine if bariatric surgery is appro­pri­ate for you, call 630−790−1700.