Gastric Sleeve Plication Revision

Sleeve Plication is a unique surgery with lots of appeal, but the lack of long term results with serious side effects puts many patients opting for a revision. Dr. Miguel Zapata now advises patients to avoid sleeve plication and offers a revision surgery to vertical sleeve gastrectomy if you received sleeve plication elsewhere.

Revising Sleeve Plication to Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy

The current cost to revise sleeve plication to sleeve gastrectomy is $9,000. Contact us for more information on revision surgery, the terms and a price quote.

Q: Why convert From Sleeve Plication to Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy?
A: The Ghrelin hormone, which is responsible for increasing appetite, is decreased with sleeve gastrectomy. With sleeve plication, the hormone is not decreased (because the stomach size is the same), which means your appetite will be the same, which can cause several complications (cited below).

Q: Is Sleeve Plication not a viable option?
A: It is practiced sparsely through the United States and Mexico, but we recommend Lap-Band surgery. Both have similar demographics, in terms of patients, and both offer similar weight loss results. Lap-Band is also well-documented, safer, and the minimally invasive.

Gastric Sleeve Plication is a newer weight loss surgery procedure with many touting comparable weight loss to gastric bypass. The appeal of sleeve plication comes from its less invasive nature: no cutting and reversibility. Some are claiming that you only have to be in the hospital for only 2 nights. The surgery is sometimes advertised for those who only need to lose 40 to 50 pounds, which is unethical as weight loss surgery is suppose to be a last resort.

The procedure doesn’t remove any portion of the stomach, it sutures the stomach vertically thereby reducing the capacity of the stomach. Through the use of nonabsorbable sutures - and not staples, bands and fills - there is less surgery time. But with the benefits comes many problems including the unknown.

Problems with Gastric Sleeve Plication

Sleeve plication is so new that there has only been a hundred or so procedures in total. Because it’s widely untested, there can be a lot of unknown problems and risks that sleeve plication can present. One study reported that the common postoperative complications and side effects were: permanent vomiting, intracapsular liver hematoma, hypocalcemia at early postoperative period, hepatitis, leakage at the suture line, and acute gastric perforation.

One of the biggest issues with sleeve plication is leaks. Leaking through the sutures is a real problem that has serious consequences. Some patients report that the stomach slides through the sutures then stretches back out. Others are reporting that sleeve plication’s long term weight loss is unsatisfactory. Since appetite is not curbed there is a risk of busting through the sutures. Others report that reversibility is an issue as it’s dangerous.