Expert: John Pilcher, MD - 1/13/2008

Question
Belated New Year Greetings Dr. Pilcher:
I am having no luck finding a surgeon who performs the Sleeve procedure in my area (VA Beach, VA).  Can you provide any web site links please or other info to aid my search?
thank you

Answer
Traci,
First thing I ask myself is if I personally know a surgeon in your area who is doing gastric sleeve surgery - unfortunately I don't offhand.

Second thing is to check the website for our national organization, at www.asmbs.org - surgeons are listed there by geography and they include the types of procedures they do.  The member search URL is:

http://www.asbs.org/html/about/membersearch2.html

Unfortunately the sleeve is new enough that this website does not have the sleeve as a listed procedure.  Many surgeons who do gastric bypass are also doing gastric sleeve (a straightforward technical migration), but have not formally developed a program.

In the end, I recommend you use the asmbs website to find surgeons who have receive a Center of Excellence designation, and who do gastric bypass surgery.  Then call those surgeons/offices directly to find out if they are doing gastric sleeve.  I suspect you will find the proportion of surgeons who are doing sleeves is quite high, and you will be successful finding a surgeon/program with whom you can be very successful.

One more note - at least in my area, health insurance companies have not come around to coverage of the sleeve as a surgical option.  My partners and I do sleeve surgery almost solely on a cash pay basis.  Please be prepared for a similar approach by the surgeons in your area.

Best of luck!

Dr JP