We offer the gastric sleeve and the Lap-Band for weight loss. We also have the gastric plication for weight loss which is an experimental protocol.

Weight loss surgery has changed over the last thirty years — from procedures that either didn’t work or that worked, but left patients in poor shape — to the era of modern weight loss surgery. In 1991 a consensus panel of the National Institute of Health agreed that weight loss surgery would benefit patients who were morbidly obese. This was based on non-laparoscopic, open procedures, and before the band was introduced.

In 1993 a new era in weight loss surgery began with the introduction of the first laparoscopic adjustable bands placed in Europe, then Australia. In 2001 the F.D.A. approved the LAP-BAND for sale in the United States.
The gastric plication has been around since the early 1900’s, but used as a weight loss procedure in other countries with results similar to the RNY-gastric bypass.

The gastric sleeve started as the first step in an operation called the duodenal switch. We had started doing this as a stand-alone procedure in 2002. We were the first to offer this laparoscopically in Arizona, and continue to believe this is a great operation for some individuals.

They key about weight loss is not the operation, but the choice to use the operation as a tool for a different lifestyle. All patients come to us having failed multiple diets or exercise programs, our job is to help them find the right weight loss tool that will work with them, as well as help them with their lifestyle after surgery.
Diets don’t work — ok, they work for a little while, but they do not sustain your weight loss. Weight loss surgeries work by allowing you to not only lose the excess weight, but by maintaining that weight loss over the long run.

Weight loss from either diet and exercise or voluntary activities or due to involuntary circumstances such as illness, is often temporary. Maintaining the weight loss achieved from diets or even with medically supervised diets, exercise and behavior modification programs is almost impossible. Surgery for weight should mark the start of a lifestyle change — a tool, to allow permanent weight loss.