Surgical Procedure

Gastrectomy is a procedure of permanently removing your stomach, partially or entirely. It’s often used with stomach cancer patients and obesity. The surgeon will divide and seal any blood vessels supplying the part of the stomach to be removed. The stomach is then surgically stapled and sealed using a calibration guide tube to measure the size of the stomach tube left behind, removing around four-fifths of the stomach permanently. This is known as a restrictive operation, which means it restricts the amount of food / drink that your smaller stomach will be able to hold after surgery. Your stomach can usually hold up to 2,000ml but this reduces to less than 150 ml.