Angeles Health International Offers US Bariatric Patients Sleeve Gastroplication, the Latest Innovation in Less Invasive Weight Loss Surgery

The Weight Loss Surgery Center at Hospital Angeles Tijuana, long a leader in obesity surgery excellence, is accepting patients as well as training US surgeons on the new Gastric Sleeve Plication surgery, a procedure that eliminates the need for devices or removal of stomach tissue and substantially reducing the risk of complications related to weight loss surgery. End Quote

San Diego, CA (1888PressRelease) April 20, 2010 - Angeles Health International, the international patient division of Grupo Angeles hospitals announces Sleeve Gastroplication (also called Gastric Sleeve Plication), an innovative new noninvasive bariatric procedure for the surgical treatment of obesity and metabolic syndrome. Gastric sleeve plication is described as an evolutionary advancement of the popular sleeve gastrectomy, a restrictive technique that reduces stomach size (to "sleeve" size) through the use of nonabsorbable suturing. Gastric sleeve plication is performed laparoscopically, and is available to patients at Hospital Angles Tijuana, part of the of the largest private hospital network in Mexico.

Gastroenterologist surgeon Dr. Juan Lopez Corvala is one of only a handful of surgeons in the world able to perform the procedure. According to Lopez Corvala the sleeve gastroplication procedure is exciting to bariatric surgeons because it offers a number of benefits over traditional gastric banding and sleeve gastrectomy.

"For surgeons, this is a perfect procedure," says Dr. Juan Lopez Corvala, who is among the world's most experienced teaching surgeons performing laparoscopic weight loss surgery today. "The sleeve gastroplication surgery is less invasive, fewer complications, an eliminated risk of leaks and staple line bleeding. There are no devices and no dietary impositions, as the digestive tract remains intact and the patient experiences no nutritional deprivation or risk of malnutrition as a direct result of the procedure."

The gastric sleeve plication procedure is available exclusively at Hospital Angeles Tijuana. "With sleeve gastroplication, the patient wants to look for a surgeon with established suturing expertise - not every weight loss surgeon is a suturing expert," says Paulo Yberri, Director of Hospital Angles Tijuana. According to Yberri, Hospital Angeles Tijuana's Weight Loss Surgery Center will be a training center for the procedure, capitalizing on the resident obesity surgical team's established leadership in proctoring weight loss surgery procedures for US surgeons.

During his tenure heading the Weight Loss Surgery Center at Hospital Angels Tijuana, Dr. Juan Lopez Corvala has performed well over 5,000 bariatric patients. He is a member of the International Federation of Obesity Surgery as well as a member of the Council of Advanced Bariatrics. In January 2010 he was a featured speaker at the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Conference on Extreme Bariatric Surgery and Gastric Restriction in Los Cabos, Mexico. His obesity surgery team plans to present outcome data for the sleeve gastroplication in upcoming international bariatric surgery conferences in Nevada and Long Beach California.

Estimates report gastric banding comprises about 42% of all weight loss surgeries today. During the same period gastric bypass - the long standing gold standard of obesity surgery - fell from 83% of all eight loss surgery procedures to about 50% of all weight loss surgery procedures. In contrast, sleeve gastrectomy is the most recently introduced weight loss surgery procedure and rapidly became the fastest growing obesity surgery, with some US insurance companies, e.g. Aetna, offering coverage to members in the US, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield providing some coverage to US patients in Mexico.

"Because of the reduced invasiveness and complication factors, we expect this procedure to become the platinum standard for weight loss surgery," says Yberri.

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