A live bariatric surgery has been successfully completed at Zulekha Hospital Sharjah as part of the healthcare group’s ongoing efforts to increase awareness of obesity, enhance patient safety and help educate fellow surgeons and healthcare professionals.

The Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy surgery was performed by Dr Hussam Altrabulsi, the specialist general surgeon, Advanced Laparoscopy and Bariatric Surgery at Zulekha Hospital and Dr Mohanad Mohamad Sultan Aljanabi, the consultant general and bariatric surgeon in front of 120 colleagues, fellows and students via a live video link, to help further medical education in the field of complex bariatric surgeries.

Dr Altrabulsi said: "As part of our programme to enhance patient safety and help in continuous medical education, we undertake live demonstration bariatric surgeries annually and we choose a patient who suffers from severe obesity for the workshop."

"This is to help doctors tackle difficult surgical cases, and we hope that this will be an added benefit for the medical community," he stated.

The patient was diagnosed with metabolic syndrome with a registered BMI score of 58 (28 points above the global average), and suffered from a cluster of conditions including increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels.

The combination of these conditions without surgical intervention put the patient at a high risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. While there are risks such as excessive bleeding and potential difficulties caused by anaesthesia, these are far outweighed by the benefits of the surgery.

Dr Mohanad Mohamad Sultan Aljanabi added: “The patient had been experiencing negative symptoms due to his condition for the past two years and with the help of the surgery we can expect to see decreasing weight and an improvement in the quality of life.

“The patient will be able to return to regular life roughly one week after the surgery and will have to follow a special diet programme for one month to rehabilitate the new stomach.  After that the patient can get back to eating normal food.  Our advice to the patient is to adopt a healthy lifestyle and healthy food habits to maintain long term weight loss.”

Aljanabi said the surgery was carried out using four-five ports and sees the surgeons remove approximately 70 per cent of the stomach.

"The patient ends up with a much smaller stomach that gives him the feeling of being full even after a small amount of food is ingested. This practical and theoretical session is designed to raise awareness between the medical professionals about the indications, procedures, protocols, operative steps, post-operative care and management, complications and follow ups," he added.-TradeArabia News Service