Min-Sheng General Hospital to host 2nd Asian Diabetes Surgery Summit

Min-Sheng general Hospital in Taiwan will host the Second Asian Diabetes Surgery Summit (ADSS) July 7, 2010. Diabetes is a pandemic and its effects are particularly felt in Asia where it is putting an ever greater strain on public health care. Bariatric surgery has recently been extended to metabolic surgery because of the associated gut hormone change and Incretin Effect.

Organized by Min-Sheng Hospital's Bariatric & Diabetes Minimally Invasive Surgery Center, the Diabetes Association of the Republic of China, and the Taiwan association for Endoscopic Surgery, the summit will look into the current state of diabetes surgery, and discuss the latest surgical techniques and disease management practices. The summit will also feature a workshop with live surgery demonstrations, including the latest technique, the "duodenum-jejunum bypass + sleeve gastrectomy." Says Professor Lee Wei-Jei, Chaiman of the organizing committee and Honorary President of the Asia Pacific Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Society, "It is an appropriate time for gastro-intestinal metabolic surgeons in asia to get together, learn cutting edge techniques, and share personal and institutional experience in the management of the disease."

The First Asian Diabetes Surgery summit which took place in 2010 led to the launch of a large scale cooperative study of diabetes surgery in Asia. More than two hundred patients have been enrolled and followed up in the study so far, and its findings will be discussed at the second summit.

Happy patient comes back to Min-Sheng Hospital to show off her new figure

For seven years, Sarita from Durban in South Africa had been in and out of the hospital for various surgeries. All her problems had the same cause: she was seriously overweight and her body frame couldn’t cope with her excess weight leading to joint problems, falls, fractures, and other ailments. In 2008 when she was told that she would likely require yet another surgery on a knee she decided to radically tackle her obesity.

She had lost weight before using diverse diets, but only to regain the shed pounds shortly after. She then looked into weight loss surgery options, and her research invariably pointed to the Bariatric Center at Min-Sheng Hospital. Lead by Professor Lee Wei-Jei, the team at Min-Sheng General Hospital has already performed more than 3000 weight loss procedures, and Professor Lee is widely acknowledged as an authority on the subject in Asia and beyond. After she contacted Min-Sheng Hospital, a visit was organized and since she was a perfect candidate for this type of surgery a gastric bypass was scheduled.

Sarita underwent gastric bypass surgery in April 2008. She was back at Min-Sheng this week for a follow up visit and to show off her new self… fifty kilos lighter. Gone are her bone-and-joint problems and Sarita is now a more active, energetic and confident person. She stresses that patients wanting to follow the same path should prepare themselves psychologically for the changes the surgery will bring. As a matter of fact, although her looks have changed Sarita has kept the same engaging personality that she had when she first visited Min-Sheng Hospital in 2008.

American doctor travels to Min-Sheng to observe latest weight loss surgery techniques

Min-Sheng General Hospital’s Bariatric Surgery Center has for a while now attracted patients from abroad for weight loss surgery performed by the most experienced team in Asia, and at competitive prices. Its reputation for excellence also attracts surgeons from across Asia, and even America, who want to gain first hand knowledge and experience of the latest cutting edge techniques used at Min-Sheng.

Dr. Steven Fowler from Aloha Surgeries in Hawaii, USA, is one of the most experienced specialists for gastric banding and gastric bypass in that state; he recently came to Taiwan to observe Professor Lee Wei-Jei perform Roux-en-Y bypasses using the two-entry-ports techniques. Although by-pass surgery using one, two or three entry ports is routinely performed at Min-Sheng General Hospital, doctors in America still mostly use the 5-entry-ports technique. Dr. Fowler is keen to introduce the two-entry-ports technique at his hospital and traveled from Hawaii to gain the necessary experience.

Although the techniques is not applicable to all patients, the reduced number of surgical wounds offers advantages both cosmetic and in pain management.

Min-Sheng Hospital hosts Single Incision Laparoscopic Surgery workshop

In prelude to the first Asian Diabetes Surgery Summit that took place in its facilities, Min-Sheng General Hospital hosted a workshop on Single Incision Laparoscopic Surgery (SILS) featuring live demonstrations of different weight loss surgical procedures using this technique.

Single Incision Laparoscopic Surgery (SILS), also referred to as single-port Access (SPA) surgery or laparoscopic endoscopic single-site surgery (LESS) is the latest development in laparoscopic surgery. Laparoscopic surgery is a type of minimally invasive abdominal surgery performed through small incisions, using tiny video equipment to allow the surgeon to see what he is doing on the inside. The abdominal cavity is often inflated with gas in order to provide working space and small surgical tools pass through ports placed through the incisions enabling the surgeon to perform the procedure internally in the same way it would be done through an open incision.

The advantages of laparoscopic surgery stem from the small size of the incisions made during the procedure. Smaller incisions result in less blood loss during surgery, and in smaller wounds that reduce the risk of infection, are less painful, and shorten the recovery time. Other advantages are a better cosmetic effect and patients discharged sooner which lessens overall costs.

Often used for gastrointestinal, gynecologic and urology surgery, laparoscopic surgery has made tremendous progress over the past twenty years, and is now routinely performed for various bariatric (weight loss) procedures. Recent advances in technology have made it possible to reduce the number of entry ports necessary to safely perform this type of surgery, and skilled surgeons are now able to operate by making a single incision in the navel through which they insert the multiple-instrument access port. SILS offers outstanding cosmetic results since the only scar, hidden in the navel, is barely visible, however it has not yet been established whether it significantly adds to the other advantages of conventional laparoscopic surgery.

Surgeons from across Asia and Taiwan who attended the workshop got to see, live from Min-Sheng Hospital’s operating rooms, several types of weight loss surgery (gastric sleeve, gastric bypass) performed using the single incision laparoscopic (SILS) technique.

Min-Sheng General Hospital is a leading center for Bariatric (weight loss) surgery in Asia.