First Canadian To Have Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy
montrealgazette.com, 25th August 2010
Claudia Farner is the first Canadian who had part of the stomach removed. She underwent the laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy in October 2008. Since then, Claudia has lost about 40% of her body weight.
Claudia has come a long way. She had to lose 40 pounds before the surgery. She lost other 156 pounds afterwards. She is now able to lead a normal life, to take a shower, to go to a restaurant, to visit family and friends.
She realises she still has got a long way to go but is very happy with what she achieved already. During the operation in 2008, doctors removed a part of Claudia’s stomach including the portion that creates ghrelin, a hormone that makes people feel hungry. Since then, she has stuck with the plan, eating no more than 1.5 cups of food at any meal.
She works really hard to achieve her goal. Swimming 6 days a week, hard-core cardio twice a week,
resistance and weight training, pulling and pushing sleds filled with weights to the 44-yard line.
Patients need to be really motivated if they want to be successful. Dr. Shahzeer Karmali who performed the operation said, Mrs. Farner is a model patient. She’s got her worse days when she’s not feeling that well, but then she looks in the mirror, sees her slimmer body and how much she’s done for herself already, and feels better again.
To July this year, another 80 people had the sleeve gastrectomy at the Royal Alexandra Hospital. One year after surgery, they had lost an average 88 pounds and decreased their body-mass index to 44 from 59. Dr. Karmali will be presenting the results at the 2010 Obesity Society conference in San Diego later this year.
Dr. Karmali highlights how difficult it is to start a different life-style. The surgery “Is kind of a kick-start,” he said, ” the society expects people like Farner to simply start eating less and exercising on their own. “She had so much (weight) on she was almost wheelchair-dependent. She couldn’t even get started. It’s very difficult.”
Just diet allows patients to lose between 5 to 10% of their excess body weight. When the person diets, they lose weight, but then put even more back on.
The weight-loss surgery brings more success. Studies show that the laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy allows patients to lose 60% of their excess weight in two years. This is the sufficient motivation for them to lose the rest through exercise and diet. The traditional gastric bypass typically helps a patient lose 75 to 85% of their excess weight by having the stomach stapled, then hooked to the intestine to reduce the amount of food digested. Those patients who have their stomach banded, which makes them feel full more quickly, lose generally 40 to 60% of their excess body weight due to the surgery.
Obviously each type of surgery has got its strengths and weaknesses. Each patient should choose the best option depending on the individual needs.
