Revision and Conversion Procedures

Our experienced doctors specialize in the revision and conversion of previous weight loss surgeries. They may recommend a revision or conversion if your bariatric surgery did not achieve lasting weight loss or led to complications. A revision will retain and modify your original procedure, while a conversion replaces an unsatisfactory procedure with a different one. Often times, both can be performed laparoscopically, or minimally invasively.

Some early weight-loss surgeries proved unsatisfactory or caused complications. They include stapling, jejunoileal bypass and loop gastric bypass. You also could experience problems with more recent procedures if your organs stretch, a blockage forms or a band slips. If you are having trouble with any previous bariatric surgery, ask our doctors whether a revision or conversion could help.Below are a few of the revision and conversion procedures our physicians perform.

• Weight gain after gastric bypass - After gastric bypass, patients may lose between 75-80% of their excess weight in the first 18 months. It is expected to gain 10-15% back after the second year, but if the patient started to gain more than 25% of their lost weight and continues to gain weight, this is considered failure and requires investigation. The most common reason for weight gain is related to dilation of the pouch and the stoma (the opening between the stomach and the intestine)
• Failed stomach stapling procedure - In the 70s, 80s, and early 90s, gastric stapling procedures were performed for weight loss. These procedures had high failure rates and complications requiring patients to have revision surgery to convert them to gastric bypass procedures.
• Failed sleeve gastrectomy - Some patients may gain more than 25% of their weight loss after sleeve gastrectomy due to dilation of the gastric sleeve. This requires surgical revision to allow them to start losing weight. Some gastric sleeve patients may also develop severe reflux that doesn’t respond to medical management. This requires conversion to gastric bypass to avoid the complication of reflux.