No Scar, Single-Incision Weight Loss Surgery in Houston Offers Faster Recovery

Dr. Sherman Yu and Dr. Terry Scarborough are both doctors with Texas Laparoscopic Consultants in Houston. The practice has just celebrated doing 250 single-incision surgeries.

The single-incision bariatric surgery eliminates the need for multiple incisions such as how weight loss surgeries have been done in the past, typically having 5-6 one-inch incision sites.

Surgeons who perform this type of surgery are using small medical instruments and a camera image which is transferred to a video camera so they can see an image of what they are doing. They make the single-incision as close to the belly button as possible, so as to maintain the cosmetic look of the skin around the area. The incision is generally about 2-5 centimeters in diameter and difficult to notice, making the procedure virtually scar-free.

Dr.’s Yu and Scarborough both believe that the smaller incision will also aid the patient in a faster recovery time. They are the first doctors in the Houston area to make the single-incision a standard for surgical weight loss procedures.

Mother and Daughter Had Single Incision Sleeve Gastrectomy at Texas Laparoscopic Consultants in Houston

Dr.’s Yu and Scarborough feel that patient safety is of utmost importance and that with using one single incision site, not only is the recovery time faster, but results in less post operative pain. They are the first doctors in Texas to use this single-incision technique with vertical sleeve gastric surgery (sleeve gastrectomy).

Gastrectomy is the process by which a large part of the stomach is removed, leaving roughly 25% of the original size, but without altering the pathway of the digestive tract.

Dr.’s Yu and Scarborough have also used the single-incision technique for gastric banding. The gastric band sometimes needs to be adjusted or completely removed in which case the surgery is reversed.

Houston Doctors Offer Patients Experience with Techniques in Weight Loss Surgeries Other Doctors Are Just Learning

Dr.’s Yu and Scarborough feel that their experience with having done over 250 single-incision surgeries makes them unique in the fact that many other surgeons are just now learning the technique. Overall, they have performed more than 1,500 laparoscopic bariatric surgeries in the past eight years.

Texas Laparoscopic Consultants received the designation of a “Center of Excellence” from the American Society of Bariatric Surgery. This designation is only awarded to roughly one out of every 300 bariatric surgery centers in the U.S.

Dr.’s Yu and Scarborough take a team approach to helping patients. They believe that having two surgeons helps provide a thorough, effective, and safe way to treat patients. Both doctors are certified by the American Board of Surgery.

Can Less Invasive Surgery Options Change a Patients Mind About Having Surgery?

In the U.S. alone, over 11 million people are thought to have morbid obesity, which means they are between 80-100 pounds overweight. While many turn to surgery after failing at various diets and exercise programs, many decide that surgery is too invasive and that the risk of death, although minimal, is just too great a price to pay. This is when laparoscopic surgery can be beneficial. The faster recovery time, less invasive procedure, and less post operative pain may prove to be the deciding factor between those who would not consider the surgery and those that do.