Is the vertical sleeve gastrectomy safe and effective or too experimental?

Good question: I think you will get a variety of answers right now, but the proceedure seems to be as safe as gastric bypass and maybe more so in those patients who are too high risk to tolerate the full bypass surgery or the patient needs more stomach absorption for mandatory medications. Studies are ongoing.

Operations: Sleeve is safe. In terms of ultimate weight loss, the bypass would be #1 followed closely by sleeve. The band would be a distant third. For fixing problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, the ranking is the same. Sleeves are a good option for someone without diabetes or heartburn. If you have those problems or have a bmi over 50, the bypass is a better option.

Safe and effective: Objective data continues to accumulate supporting the laparoscopic vertical sleeve gastrectomy as an effective operation as part of a comprehensive weight loss program. Excess weight loss and improvement in comorbidities is very close to that achieved with gastric bypass. However, as with all such operations, the patient must buy in to significant lifestyle changes to be successful in the long run