CLINICAL RESEARCH Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy as a Single-Stage Bariatric Procedure Tarik Sammour & Andrew G. Hill & Parry Singh & Anudini Ranasinghe & Richard Babor & Habib Rahman Received: 20 July 2009 / Accepted: 17 November 2009 / Published online: 8 December 2009 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009 Abstract Background Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy is increas- ingly being used as a stand-alone procedure in bariatric surgery, with medium-term follow-up data now emerging. We present our early experience in patients with a mean body mass index (BMI) in the super-obese range. Methods Review of prospectively collected data for the first 100 patients who underwent laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy at Counties Manukau District Health Board between March 2007 and July 2008. Results One hundred patients were identified, with a mean age of 43 years (range, 20–60 years). Maori and Pacific Islanders made up 31% of the patient subset. Patients had a mean BMI of 50.3 kg/m 2 (range, 34.5–72.8 kg/m 2 ). Forty- five patients were super-obese. The median hospital stay was 2 days (range, 1–7 days). Mean follow-up was 12.0 months (range, 0.9–23.3 months). Mean excess weight loss was 62.9% (range, 7.2–129.0%). Twenty-five percent of patients were diabetic and 45% of patients were hypertensive pre-operatively. Diabetics and hypertension resolved or improved in 72% and 60% of patients, respectively. There was a major complication rate of 7%, including three staple-line leaks (one requiring laparotomy), two staple-line bleeds (one requiring laparotomy) and one infected haematoma. There were no deaths. Conclusions In this public hospital setting, laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy has achieved satisfactory weight loss results with an acceptable complication rate in the medium-term. Keywords Sleeve gastrectomy . Obesity . Bariatric . Diabetes . Weight loss . Gastric . Gastroplasty Introduction Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is increasingly being used as a stand-alone procedure in bariatric surgery with medium-term follow-up data emerging [1–3]. The major advantages of this procedure appear to be a lower post-operative morbidity than laparoscopic roux-en-y gas- tric bypass (LRYGB) and bilio-pancreatic diversion [4, 5], with superior weight loss compared with laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) [6, 7]. There also appears to be significant hormonal (ghrelin) suppression after LSG, which is not demonstrated after LRYGB and LAGB in direct comparison studies [6–8]. There have been favourable reports of weight loss for up to 3 years after LSG [7, 9], although the durability of this weight loss remains to be demonstrated by longer-term follow-up [9, 10]. Obesity is a significant problem in the South Auckland region of New Zealand, with a prevalence of 33.0% according to the latest New Zealand Ministry of Health data [11]. A publicly funded bariatric service has been in operation at Counties Manukau District Health Board since early 2007. Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy is offered as the primary surgical procedure. We conducted a review of prospectively collected data for the first 100 patients that underwent this procedure in our centre. T. Sammour (*) : A. G. Hill : A. Ranasinghe : R. Babor : H. Rahman Department of Surgery, South Auckland Clinical School, Middlemore Hospital, Private Bag, 93311 Otahuhu, Auckland, New Zealand e-mail: tsammour@middlemore.co.nz T. Sammour : A. G. Hill : P. Singh Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand OBES SURG (2010) 20:271–275 DOI 10.1007/s11695-009-0038-x