New York City Surgeon Performed Weight Loss Surgery during a Live Webcast.
New York - An estimated six million Americans are affected by severe obesity, a condition that has become a major public health problem resulting in 300,000 deaths annually. Morbid obesity is a chronic disease associated with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and arthritis. Bariatric surgery is the only proven technique to achieve long-term weight loss and, as a result, is one of the fastest growing surgical techniques being practiced today.
Although weight loss surgery provides many health benefits, it is not risk-free and some patients experience complications. These complications result from either patient non-compliance or a mechanical failure of the bariatric surgical procedure itself. Julio Teixeira, MD, director of the Weight Loss Surgery Center at St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals, is committed to safety as his top priority and places particular emphasis on the prevention of complications during surgery. For example, during each procedure Dr. Teixeira proactively closes open pockets in the abdomen to prevent bowel from getting trapped and causing herniation, one of the major post-surgical complications that can arise. St. Luke’s Hospital presented a live Webcast of Dr. Teixeira’s laparoscopic procedure on February 13, 2006 from 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM (EST).
Since 1998, Dr. Teixeira has performed more than 1,000 laparoscopic gastric bypass and banding procedures. He is dedicated to minimally invasive surgery. “Minimally invasive surgery offers patients less pain, fewer wound complications, quicker recovery time and faster return to normal activity than open surgery,” says Dr. Teixeira. “Proactively closing open pockets in the abdomen can have long-lasting benefits in terms of preventing complications as well as infections.”
By restricting the intake of food into a smaller stomach and re-routing it through the small intestines, gastric bypass surgery affects the amount of food absorption, and changes the way the body uses energy. Long-term studies show that the majority of patients undergoing gastric bypass surgery can attain extensive weight loss, typically between 50 and 75 percent of their excess weight over a period of 12 to 18 months. Complications of obesity, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, arthritis, and gastroesophageal reflux disease (heartburn) improve markedly or disappear completely. The weight regained after five years is only five percent of that lost. Gastric bypass surgery has been endorsed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the World Health Organization, The American Obesity Association, the American Heart Association, and Shape Up America.
During the live Webcast, Dr. Teixeira performed the gastric bypass surgery laparoscopically. He made five or six tiny keyhole incisions over the stomach area, instead of one long incision, as is done in conventional "open" surgery. A very small video camera called a laparoscope, which sends images to an external video screen, is inserted into the body through one of the incisions. Hollow tubes called "ports" are inserted into the other small incisions. The tools used in laparoscopic surgery -- designed like traditional surgical instruments but on a much smaller scale -- are passed through the ports and into the body. These tools function like "joysticks" that a surgeon maneuvers to perform the surgery, while watching what he is doing on the external video screen. The result is significantly less post-operative pain and reduced risk of infection. In addition, recovery time, which can be months with an "open" procedure, can be reduced to weeks.
Dr. Teixeira joined the Center for Weight Loss Surgery at St. Luke’s and Roosevelt hospitals in 2005. Prior to arriving at St. Luke’s, he was Director of Bariatric Surgery and Director of Telemedicine at Montefiore Medical Center. He remains an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
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