Is Endoscopic Sleeve Gastroplasty Worth the Cost? A Cost-Benefit Analysis

Endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG) is a minimally invasive, incision-free operation that shrinks your stomach to help you lose weight. It’s a more recent bariatric treatment, and medical insurance only partially pays for it. The cost of endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty near me typically ranges from $7,000 to $9,000. 

Under sedation, your physician uses an endoscope to place sutures in your stomach. These change its structure, resulting in a tube-shaped stomach restricting food intake.

Costs

Endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG) is an outpatient, minimally invasive procedure that reduces stomach volume to promote weight loss. It is an alternative for individuals who are obese but don’t qualify for bariatric surgery or prefer a non-surgical option. It can help patients lose 15 to 20 percent of their body weight and improve health conditions, including hypertension, sleep apnea, and diabetes.

Your doctor will perform the ESG surgery by seeing inside your stomach using an endoscope, a flexible tube and then sewing portions of your stomach together to form a sleeve-like construction. This restricts how much food you can consume and decreases the rate at which food enters your intestines, causing you to feel full more quickly. The sleeve produced by ESG is permanent, unlike other restricting operations like laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. Even so, if you wish to alter your course of therapy, your doctor can remove it.

After the procedure, you can consume low-sugar clear liquids for one week, then semi-solid foods, followed by a normal and healthy diet. You may experience a slight delay in your appetite following the procedure, but you should see significant weight loss results within a year. Weight loss with ESG is best achieved when paired with behavioral therapy, exercise, and nutritional guidance.

Results

ESG is an excellent choice for people who are moderately obese and do not qualify for bariatric surgery. It works best in combination with other forms of support, including behavioral therapy and nutrition guidance. It also helps manage health conditions that may be aggravated by obesity, including cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes.

Before the procedure, you will undergo a comprehensive health screening process to ensure you can safely undergo general anesthesia for the operation. Your doctor will operate by passing an endoscope through your mouth, throat, and stomach. Thanks to the endoscope’s camera, your doctor can examine the inside of your stomach without making any incisions. Your stomach’s size will be reduced by placing sutures between the front and rear walls of your stomach using the endoscope.

You will begin a liquid diet immediately after the procedure, then gradually switch to semi-solid foods. Your doctor will guide you through your recovery period and offer ongoing support. Combined with a healthy lifestyle, you can expect to lose substantial weight and improve your health in the long run.

While ESG is a relatively new procedure that began gaining popularity in 2012, it has shown promising results for patients who follow a healthy lifestyle. 

Recovery

Endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG) is an alternative to surgical sleeve gastrectomy and an incision-free method for weight loss. It reduces the size of your stomach by stitching the walls into a smaller tube-like shape, about 30% of its original size. This limits your food intake and makes it take longer for your stomach to empty, resulting in long-term weight loss.

In this outpatient procedure, a lighted tube called an endoscope with suturing tools attached is guided down your throat into your stomach. Sutures are placed that get pulled and tightened to bring sections of your stomach together. This changes the shape of your stomach into a narrow “sleeve” that can hold only small amounts of food.

Most patients lose about 15% to 20% of their excess weight in the first year after ESG. This is enough to improve or eliminate obesity-related comorbidities like high blood pressure, diabetes, and sleep apnea.

However, it is important to remember that weight loss surgery is only a tool, not a cure. You must use it with a healthy diet and exercise plan to maintain your results and prevent the risk of regaining the weight you lost. 

Complications

An endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty is a minimally invasive procedure that reduces stomach volume to limit the amount of food you can consume. It’s one of the most popular bariatric surgery options because it is reversible and does not require surgical incisions or scarring.

During ESG, doctors use an endoscope, a thin tube with a light and camera attached, to access your stomach without making incisions in your abdomen. Using a suturing device on the end of the endoscope, they place a series of sutures that draw the front and back walls of your stomach into a sleeve shape, which reduces stomach volume by about 70%.

ESG is performed as an outpatient, and patients go home soon after the procedure. Strenuous activity should be avoided for about a week.

Patients typically see improvements in obesity-related health issues, including Type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, and weight loss. In addition to lowering the risk of heart disease and high blood pressure, losing weight can also eliminate the need for medication to treat these problems.

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